Internet devices have revolutionized the way we live and there appears to be no end in sight to the growth potential in this market. On April 7, 2013, Martyn Williams, of the IDG News Service has reported for TechHive, More than 2 billion gadgets are forecast to ship in 2013. According to estimates from Gartner, almost 2.4 billion computers, tablets and cellphones will ship this year.
This represents an increase of nine percent over 2012. And, if Gartner's figures are on target, the industry has even more growth ahead. By 2017, Gartner anticipates just under 3 billion of the devices will ship. Clearly, there is an unbelievable love affair with computing gadgets worldwide. Android has become the most dominant operating system and is expected to solidify its position this year, when about 861 million of the 2.4 billion devices expected to be shipped will run the OS.
IT World has also covered this story. As smartphones become more and more popular, shipments of traditional desktop and laptop PCs are expected to continue falling from 315 million this year to 272 million by 2017. A bright new spot in the market is the ultramobiles, which Gartner has defined as thin-and-light devices that are a hybrid tablet running an Intel chip, such as Microsoft's Surface Pro. Ultramobile shipments are anticipated to be 24 million this year, and rise to 96 million in 2017.
