Stefan Mileschin

Every market research company known to the world plus her or his dog is pointing to the inevitable. There’s no compelling reason to buy another tablet once you’ve got one or two and a smartphone as well.

And that view is underlined by Taiwanese market research company Digitimes Research (DR), which knows what it’s talking about because Taiwan is the engine room of hardware and has been since the mid to late 1980s.

DR is forecasting that global tablet shipments will fall by 15 percent in the third quarter of this year – that’s the quarter we’re in, folks.

Apple, DR suggests won’t bother launch a new iPad Air for the nine inch size, but will just carry on selling the iPad Airs it’s already selling.

Nevertheless, the analysts believe – and we believe with some justification – that Apple will ship a 12.85 inch iPad later this year.

Apple will not fare well against mainstream Android vendors and Windows 10 isn’t going to necessarily make the world a better place.

DR forecasts the top four players in the quarter wil be Apple, Samsung, Lenovo and Asustek. That might cheer Intel up a bit, like Microsoft the chip giant is trying to sail its boat through the doldrums.

http://www.techeye.net/news/people-s...ng-the-tablets