Gartner forecasts a 53% surge in global tablet shipments this year.

On the morning of October 28, according to Beijing time, the American market research company Gartner estimated last week that in 2013, global tablet shipments would increase by 53%, while desktop and notebook shipments would decline by 11%.

The essence of the emerging ultramobile devices is PCs with a tablet form factor, which will help offset the declining trend of other PC products, but not significantly. According to Gartner's data, if ultramobile devices are included, the entire PC market will still decline by 8.4% in 2013.

This news comes as Apple releases the new iPad Air and iPad mini, while Microsoft will also sell the Surface RT2 and Surface Pro2 on the same day, starting at $449 and $899 respectively.

Gartner expects Android tablets to surpass iPads for the first time in 2013, with shipment volumes of 91.5 million units and 89.6 million units respectively, representing market shares of 49.6% and 48.6%. Gartner stated that Windows tablets would only exceed 3 million units this year, with a share of approximately 1.7%.

According to data from the American market research company IDC, looking at individual manufacturers' products, the iPad still has the largest global tablet market share, reaching 32% in the second quarter. Samsung ranked second with an 18% share, mainly using the Android mobile platform for its products.

Small tablets or large phones?

Gartner and other analytical institutions have found that there is a strong trend toward miniaturization of tablets. In a survey of 21,500 consumers in the United States and seven other countries or regions, 47% of respondents owned an 8-inch or smaller tablet.

Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi said: "Continuing the trend we saw last year, small-sized tablets are expected to be the mainstay of this Christmas shopping season, while smartphones, which have long been popular during the Christmas shopping season, will lose their charm."

Gartner estimates that global smartphone shipments will reach 1.8 billion units this year, an increase of 3.7% over 2012.

If desktops, laptops, ultramobile devices, tablets, and smartphones are all counted, Android accounts for a high 38%, while Windows ranks second with a 4.3% share due to the declining sales of traditional PCs. Devices running iOS rank third with a 1.2% share. Total device shipments are expected to reach 2.3 billion in 2013.

By device type, Gartner estimates that desktop and laptop shipments will be 303 million units this year, ultramobile devices will be 18.5 million units, tablets will be 184 million units, and smartphones will be 1.8 billion units.

Gartner expects Windows to resume growth in 2014, accounting for 10% of the total 364 million devices that year.

Smartwatches

Milanesi expects that despite increasing attention from various manufacturers on wearable computers like smartwatches and smart glasses, these devices will remain accessories to smartphones for several years. Gartner believes that less than 1% of consumers will replace their smartphones with a combination of wearable devices and tablets.

"In the short term, we expect consumers to view wearable devices as a nice-to-have rather than a must-have product, so smartphones will still be our loyal companions throughout the day," Milanesi said.