Later today, Apple will report Q1 figures. We know much has changed in the tablet market over the last three months. Earlier this week, Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project reported tablet and eReader ownership (unsurprisingly) surged during the 2011 holiday season.
This is consistent with what I expected (and subsequently reported) following Black Friday and the (unofficial) start of the holidays. Starting with Black Friday (but really through the entire holiday season) several things too place to help drive tablet sales. First, prices came down significantly. Prices for many of the “high-end” tablets were marked down significantly and lower priced tablets entered the market in calendar Q4. A declining price helps up-take. Secondly, both devices have been in the marketplace for 18+ months and are moving quickly into mass market appeal. We are moving into the fat part of the adoption curve. Finally, tablets were the loss-leader for many retailers on Black Friday. While the volume wasn’t high on a single-store basis, in aggregate there were a plethora of tablets (from a variety of OEMs) bought during the weekend across a myriad of retailers from Best Buy to Big Lots to Radio Shack to Staples, to ToysRUs. CEA estimates 14 percent of those who purchased tech over the weekend bought a tablet – up from six percent in 2010. eReaders also did well over the weekend with an estimated 15 percent of tech shoppers buying an eReader. This figure is up from 13 percent in 2010 and two percent during the 2009 Black Friday weekend.
According to Pew, both tablets and eReaders are now owned by about roughly 1/5 of the US population. More than a third of those living in households earning more than $75,000 (36%) now own a tablet computer and almost a third of those with college educations or higher (31%) own tablets.…
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