TORONTO — Tech trends firm IDC is predicting that Canadian consumers will flock to tablets with almost 1.5 million of the wireless devices expected to be shipped this year.
The next six month will be “overwhelming” in terms of tablet launches, screens sizes, platforms and price points, senior analyst Krista Napier said Wednesday.
“Media tablets turned heads in 2010 with the introduction of the iPad,” Napier said in a news release.
“With market demand now established, competing vendors are launching their own versions of these multi-functional, lightweight devices,” she said.
New product launches will pick up where the first version of Apple’s iPad left off and a number of these tablets will have Google’s Android operating system, Napier said.
IDC said a total of 17 million tablets were shipped globally in 2010, led by Apple’s iPad.
The third quarter of the 2010 saw the most tablet sales. IDC reported about 4.8 million global tablet shipments in the period, with Apple taking most of the sales.
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (TSX:RIM) will launch its PlayBook tablet later this year. The first generation of the device is expected to primarily appeal to business users who would use it tethered to their BlackBerry smartphone.