According to the latest International Data Corporation (IDC) quarterly tablet tracking report, in 2021, China’s tablet market will record the largest year-on-year growth since 2013, with an expected annual growth of 22.4%, with an overall shipment of about 28.6 million units.
Under the circumstance that the impact of the epidemic is relatively small, the main reason the Chinese tablet computer market still maintains a substantial growth is that consumer demand remains high: the demand for using tablet computers for entertainment, education, and office caused by the epidemic has not been caused by the epidemic. The impact has decreased and there has been a significant decline. Consumers’ usage habits have gradually developed, and the frequency of use is higher than before the epidemic.
The improvement of the overall market has also promoted the attention of various manufacturers to tablet computers, increased resource investment in all aspects, and the continuous release of competitive new products, which in turn further promoted consumers’ desire to buy.
With the substantial year-on-year growth in 2021, how will the Chinese tablet market perform in 2022? IDC believes that it is still optimistic about the development prospects of China’s tablet computer market next year and the next few years.
First, consumer demand, the basis for the long-term development of the market, will not disappear immediately, especially under the influence of the “double reduction” policy, the demand for tablet PCs among students has increased; secondly, more and more manufacturers entering the tablet PC market More, the original players will maintain the investment, and the growth of industry players will also promote the growth of the overall market. Therefore, China’s tablet PC market still has room for growth in the next few years.
IDC’s top 10 forecasts for China’s tablet PC market in 2022 are as follows:
Prediction 1: China’s tablet PC market continues to grow
The Chinese tablet market is expected to ship 30.64 million units in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 7.1%. Consumers have gradually developed the habit of using large-screen terminals in entertainment, education, and office scenarios, and the frequency of use has increased significantly, which will promote the continued growth trend of China’s tablet computer market in 2022.
Prediction 2: Competition in the commercial market will intensify, and industry players will face greater challenges
IDC predicts that in 2022, China’s commercial tablet PC market will ship 4.63 million units, a year-on-year increase of 2.5%. Although the growth continued, the growth rate of the commercial market began to slow down. The education market is saturated with purchases, and more usage needs are turned to personal purchases by consumers. The tight government budget further led to a contraction in the procurement of the political and educational industries.
In addition to traditional industries such as banking, finance, services, and production, the demand for other industries declined. Intensified market competition and the entry of more industry players will also increase the challenges.
Prediction 3: Student tablets will bottom out and return to growth
IDC predicts that the Chinese student tablet market will ship 3.56 million units in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 4.1%. Under the influence of the “double reduction” policy, offline self-learning, online school tutoring, and other quality education have made the demand for tablet computers still exist among individual consumers in education. The future of the industry is also optimistic, and the number of participants will continue to increase. Resources for student tablets will bottom out. But policy uncertainty has limited the market from reaching higher growth in the future.
Prediction 4: Tablet PCs will continue to develop with large screens, and the proportion of screens of other materials will continue to increase
The tablet computer screen will continue to develop into a large screen, and 10.95″-11.5″ products will become the mainstream. However, under the existing technical conditions, an excessively large screen and an excessively heavy body will seriously affect the portability of the tablet computer.
In addition to screen size, it is expected that the share of Mini-LED and OLED material screens will increase. It is expected that the share of Mini-LED will reach about 5% in 2022. In 2022, the share of OLED products will rise to about 8%. In the future, more low-end products will use OLED screens, but the large-scale application of tablet PCs is expected to be realized after PCs are popularized.
Prediction 5: Tablet standby time will grow in importance
As the frequency and time of use increase, the importance of tablet standby time increases. The continuous enhancement of chip computing power and the improvement of display effects such as high screen refresh rate have significantly increased the power consumption of tablet computers and reduced standby time. In addition to battery optimization, increasing battery capacity, optimizing battery materials, and optimizing software, high-power fast charging will become more popular.
Prediction 6: 5G tablet growth slows down
The share of 5G tablets is expected to be only 4.5% in 2022, compared with 11.1% in the same period last year. At present, 5G mobile phones have failed to strongly stimulate consumers’ desire to switch phones, so consumers’ demand for 5G tablets is even lower than expected.
Therefore, the growth rate of 5G tablets will slow down significantly in the future. Although various manufacturers are launching their own 5G tablet products one after another, most of them are replacing 4G products, and consumers’ main demand is still concentrated on products with wifi connections.
Prediction 7: Market competition intensifies, and the growth rate of the average price of the tablet PC market slows down
The average tablet price in 2022 is expected to be basically the same as in 2021. As the number of industry participants in the tablet PC market continues to increase, market competition is further intensified, and products are expected to be heavily assimilated in hardware, making it difficult to form differentiated products to attract users, so price wars are inevitable. With the gradual improvement of the supply situation next year, the average price increase rate of tablet PCs that has lasted for many years will slow down significantly.
Prediction 8: The importance of multi-screen collaboration will increase, and it will become a must-have feature of tablet computers
With the increase of personal and family-owned terminal devices and the diversification of usage scenarios, multi-screen collaboration is more important. From the dual-screen linkage of mobile phone, tablet or tablet, and PC, it will be more transformed into a three-screen mobile phone, tablet, PC, and even four-screen linkage with a smart large screen. Manufacturers can also improve user experience and stickiness through the establishment of a multi-terminal ecological platform.
Prediction 9: The continuous optimization of operating systems and ecological applications is expected to promote the growth of tablet PC usage scenarios in the office field in the next few years
With the successive releases and applications of Windows 11 and Android 12L, the tablet operating system and ecological applications have been continuously optimized and improved, and the ecology of PC and tablet is gradually opening up. The application of the M1 chip on the iPad Pro also shows that Apple started a similar layout earlier. With the interconnection of ecology, the use of Windows Detachable tablet PCs is expected to increase in the office field in the next few years.
Prediction 10: With the diversification of usage scenarios, users have a high demand for peripheral devices of tablet PCs
The increase in education and office use scenarios has prompted tablet users not only to have a high demand for peripheral devices such as keyboards and styluses but also to have a high demand for user experience. Tablet PC users will also have a significant increase in demand for other peripherals such as mice, handles, and even USB flash drives.
Conclusion:
In general, the tablet computer market in 2022 is full of opportunities and challenges. In addition to improving production efficiency, major suppliers need to pay attention to the improvement of product quality and keep an eye on trial production needs in order to launch better products to serve customers.
