Unwanted tablets caught in channel U-bend

Of the 68 million media tablets produced last year, just 60 million ended up in the hands of end users, according to Gartner

More than eight million tablets got stuck in the channel last year as Apple's rivals overestimated demand for their products, says Gartner.

According to the market watcher, more than 68 million media tablets were produced last year but just 60 million ended up in the hands of end users as Android-based challengers failed to win over the market.

Of that 60 million, 40 million were iPads, with Android-based devices accounting for 17.3 million of the total.

Gartner research director Carolina Milanesi said PC vendors had struggled to compete on price and differentiate enough on their hardware or ecosystem.

"Outside of Samsung and Amazon, they have all suffered," she told ChannelWeb.

"It is the combination of having to build a presence in a new market and having very limited traction. From Motorola to RIM, Acer and Asus, they have all built inventory in the channel."

Although the figures relate to the end of 2011, the situation has not improved in early 2012 because the new iPad has "reset the benchmark for the product to beat", she added.

"I would not expect a great deal of [the eight million units] to have been shifted as prices have not dropped enough to make the devices attractive," said Milanesi, adding that most of the surplus product would end up in second-tier markets such as eastern Europe. It might take a price cut of the magnitude of last year's $99 HP TouchPad firesale to make them attractive, she added.

In contrast to 2011, tablet launches have been thin on the ground this year as vendors took a wait-and-see approach, first in relation to the new iPad and now in relation to the upcoming launch of Windows 8.

According to the research house, Microsoft-based tablets will go from a standing start to account for 4.9 million shipments this year and 14.6 million shipments in 2013.

The overall market will virtually double to 119 million units this year before swelling to 182 million in 2013.

By 2016, the tablet market will be worth 369 million units, Gartner predicted. By this time, iOS will account for less than half of the market (170 million units). Shipments of Android-based devices will stand at 138 million units, Microsoft-based devices at 44 million and QNX-based devices at 18 million, Gartner forecast.