What's Next For The Tablet Industry?
What's Next For The Tablet Industry?
With Apple, Google and Samsung shaking up the smartphone sector following their recent mobile releases, this begs the question “what’s next for the tablet industry?”. Over half of UK adults (aged 16 and over) own a tablet, however, unlike smartphone providers, tablet manufacturers have not made any significant technological developments in recent years.
To keep tech-savvy consumers coming back for more, it’s essential to innovate and get ahead of the competition. That’s why we’ve analyzed the latest trends to see what you can expect from the tablet industry over the next few years.
Who is Using Tablets?
Unsurprisingly, smartphones are the most popular devices used to go online, however, research shows that tablets are still a part of users’ daily lives.
According to an Ofcom report, adults aged between 25 and 34 spend a total of 78 minutes using their tablet online per day, which is the highest out of the groups surveyed.
On the other hand, those aged 45-54 spend the least amount of time online using their tablet at 42 minutes per day.
This suggests that younger, tech-savvy consumers are utilising tablets to their full potential, whereas, the older generations prefer to browse online using a desktop or laptop.
As tablets and phones become more established in our lives, it’s likely that younger consumers will continue to use tablets as they get older, and smartphone usage will take over as the main device of choice over time.
Tablet usage is also popular among children who can’t use sophisticated smartphones. Research by Statista shows that children aged 3-9 years old are more likely to own tablets than smartphones, whereas, after this age, smartphone ownership takes over and tablet ownership decreases.
Tech manufacturers have responded to this by creating tablets specifically designed for children as well as gaming tablets, and this trend is likely to continue as tablets are simpler for kids to use.
Foldable Tablets
Samsung was one of the first organisations to pioneer the ‘foldable smartphone’, and this has had a knock-on effect on the tablet industry too.
It appears that Lenovo is one of the first and only organisations to create a foldable tablet computer thus far, after unveiling their Thinkpad X1 foldable tablet in May. However, we expect other tech companies to follow suit over the next few years, following Lenovo’s announcement.
Foldable tablets are a more portable, practical option for those who need to use a computer on public transport or when away from the home. It’s likely that foldable tablets will be smaller than a traditional touch screen laptop, therefore, they’ll be easier to carry around and use on-the-go.
Super-charged Cameras
Currently, the iPad pro dominates tablet cameras with a 12MP main camera and a powerful processor to match; the Apple 12X chipset. However, there has not been any remarkable changes in Apple and android tablet cameras in recent years, therefore, we believe that a shake-up in the market is long overdue.
Due to their larger screens, it’s no surprise that many people like taking and editing pictures on their tablets. As a result, the natural next step is to improve this experience for users. This can be done by increasing the types of cameras available, creating an experience similar to that of a professional photographer.
We’ve seen this in the smartphone world with the iPhone 11 Pro, however, this feature might be more beneficial for tablet users who want to take excellent photos and edit them with ease on a bigger screen.
Air-Motion Controlled Tablets
Android has been ahead of the game when it comes to their gesture-control technology, however, you still need to touch the screen of the device you want to control. As a result, this technology looks a lot more complex than it actually is.
To take tablets to the next level, air-motion control should be made more readily available to tablet users. This would improve their ease of use, as tablet screens are larger and generally require two hands or a stylus to use them comfortably.
Crystal-clear Screens
One of the main advantages of having a large tablet screen is being able to watch videos and movies more comfortably, as well as being able to play games with ease.
The interest in online video and streaming has increased significantly over the past few years, and now over a quarter of adults use video sites like YouTube at least once per day (Ofcom). Recent research has shown that YouTube made over $15 billion in ad revenue over the past year, making it almost as large as Netflix.
Most of the top tablets sport bright AMOLED screens, however, over the next few years we should expect to see the most innovative brands top this technology.
As 8k technology makes its way to TV screens and into homes, don’t be surprised if the technology of this calibre makes it to tablets too.
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