Mobile Device Shipments surpasses 2.4 billion as Tablets close in on PCs

Ever since the emergence of mobile devices into the technology industry, there has been tremendous growth and no signs of declining as 2.43 billion units will be shipped to retailers this year compared to 2013’s 2.34 billion units. These are the latest numbers of shipments coming from Gartner as they break them down by PCs, tablets and mobile phones.

Many will think that with the way tablets are being used, they would have surpassed traditional PCs (laptops inclusive) in terms of sales . But that does not seem to be the case as the PC market still accounts for 308 million devices which will be shipped this year with tablets closing in at 256 million. The analysts at Gartner predict that this will change in 2015.

However, mobile phones will account for the largest number of shipments this year by reaching a total of 1.86 billion units. And that number is also expected to increase by 2015.

Device Type	2013	2014	2015
Traditonal PCs (Desk-Based and Notebook)	296,131	276,221	261,657
Ultramobiles, Premium	21,517	32,251	55,032
PC Market Total	317,648	308,472	316,689
Tablets	206,807	256,308	320,964
Mobile Phones	1,806,964	1,862,766	1,946,456
Other Ultramobiles (Hybrid and Clamshell)	2,981	5,381	7,645
Total	2,334,400	2,432,927	2,591,753

On the other hand the OS break down by Gartner shows that the Android OS powered devices accounts for 1.168 billion out of the total 2.4 billion. Following the lead is Windows OS and then iOS/Mac OS as we see in the table below.

Operating System	2013	2014	2015
Android	898,944	1,168,282	1,370,893
Windows	326,060	333,419	373,694
iOS/Mac OS	236,200	271,115	301,349
Others	873,195	660,112	545,817
Total	2,334,400	2,432,927	2,591,753

 

Source: Gartner