By: David Krebs VDC Research[/mks_pullquote]
The rugged tablet market
The global market for tablets has changed significantly over the past several years. While consumer demand for tablets has largely petered, the opportunity in the enterprise – in particular for ruggedized devices – remains strong.
Looking forward to 2022, VDC Research anticipates the overall opportunity for enterprise/government issued tablets to scale from 7.3 million units in 2018 and reach 8.3 million units by 2022.
Tablet use cases are emerging across most sectors, supporting a wide variety of applications, in particular in customer or asset-facing workflows. The competitive environment is increasingly active with new entrants and acquisitions altering the landscape.
Key market expectations
- The rugged tablet market – including slate and 2-in-1 detachable form factors – is expected to reach almost $1 billion by 2022, growing by a CAGR of 5.7%. Rugged 2-in-1 detachable tablets is the fastest growing segment, projected to reach 21.4% of spend by 2022.
- The corresponding opportunity for non-rugged tablets supporting enterprise and government workflows is estimated to hit $1.7 billion by 2022.
- The rugged tablet market remains very much aligned with the PC market, with Windows 10 and x86 processor architectures dominating. However, Android is making in-roads, in particular as the the Android OS is gaining greater acceptance to support enterprise workloads.
- Cellular connectivity – and activation – is significantly higher for rugged tablets in comparison to non-rugged devices. Approximately 51% of rugged tablets shipped have active cellular connections.
- 10-12.9” devices are still the norm for organizations utilizing rugged tablets, accounting for approximately 71% of total shipments. Although this is not expected to change materially over the forecast period, demand for tablets with smaller displays is outpacing the overall market.
- The non-rugged consumer grade tablet differs the rugged market with greater adoption of tablets with smaller displays (<10”). Moreover, cellular attach rates are significantly lower at approximately 20% of units.
By: David Krebs VDC Research[/mks_pullquote]
