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Tablets To Lead The Mobility Sector For The Next Two Years
Published Jun 6, 2011
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Tablets are growing at a quicker pace than any other categories and will most likely be the engine of growth for the mobility sector for the next couple of years.
According to Ashish Panjabi, Chief Operating Officer of Jacky’s Electronics, the UAE’s leading multi brand consumer electronics retailer, the tablet market took off in the UAE and in the region only in 2010 and the demand in this category will continue to grow in the coming years. Research firm Strategy Analytics’ findings showed that the global tablet market is expected to grow to $49 billion or to sell 149 million tablet devices by 2015, beating every consumer electronic products after TVs and PCs segments .
“Tablets have played an integral part of our growth over the last 12 months, and since the time Apple iPad was launched, we've seen this category emerge overnight. It accounts for 10-14% of our total IT sales,” said Panjabi. “However, the bigger challenge has been securing supplies of stocks as demand far exceeds supply at the moment. Currently, any sort of growth figures for this category would be in triple digits.”
Leading the tablets race at Jacky’s Electronics outlets remains to be the iPad and iPad 2, which enjoys 85% of the tablet market. Samsung follows second, having had the first mover advantage of being the first major brand to launch its tablet Galaxy Tab after Apple. Other brands such as Acer, HP, Dell and Motorola have also introduced their own tablets while BlackBerry’s Playbook is set to launch in the month of June.
“The release of the Apple iPad last year changed the whole user-experience by introducing iOS, a consumer friendly operating system that was custom built for touch screen devices, for either a smartphone or a tablet. This year, a variety of tablets are already available in the market which are based on various operating systems such as Android (developed by Google), and BlackBerry’s Tablet OS,” Panjabi added.
He added that the race to be a leader in the tablet business comes down to which brand offers a total user can experience that includes a combination of hardware, software, Apps and aesthetics. Unlike many other technology products, specifications are not the most important to buyers. “Apple has done well till date because they manage the whole eco system of hardware and software whilst managing a stringent set of controls over what Apps appear on their App Store. Many brands have now realised this and this is why we’ve seen such a rapid development in operating systems for tablets as well as various form factors that are starting to emerge,” Panjabi said.
Initially, tablets are being used more as consumer devices because of the rich multimedia experience it delivers, such as in the form of games, movies or music. With more and more Apps coming onto the market every day, it is being used as a device for consuming content. This means that apart from imitating some of the functionality that customers are used to seeing in netbooks or notebooks, tablets are also eating into a market that would have once been occupied by portable gaming consoles or portable DVD players. Cloud computing is something that is quickly becoming a reality and a lot of the content such as pictures, movies, documents or games would move onto a cloud environment.
“Many business users may also start adopting tablets as brands like BlackBerry and HP have a very strong enterprise base and they would be surely designing their tablets keeping this customer segment in mind. HP have already announced that their WebOS operating system will now become available on all of its product categories particularly laptops, tablets and printers,” Panjabi concluded.
About Jacky’s Electronics:
Jacky’s Electronics opened its first retail showroom in Deira, Dubai in 1988. Since then it has grown steadily and today has 10 outlets across the UAE.
In March 2011, Ajman City Centre awarded Jacky’s as the ‘Best Electronics and Telephone Accessories Store’, while in May 2010, Jacky’s was awarded Super Retailer of the Year in the Reseller Middle East Awards 2010.
Meanwhile, in March 2011, Jacky’s Express received the ‘Best Electronics and Telephone Accessories Store’ award from Sharjah City Centre, a feat it received for three consecutive years since 2009. For the past two years, it has also been voted ‘Best Electronics and Entertainment Store’ by the Mall of the Emirates.
In March 2008 and April 2010, Jacky’s Electronics was awarded the ‘Best Retail Company of the Year Award’ in the Channel Middle East Awards. Additionally, Jacky’s Electronics was recognised for its ‘Outstanding Performance in 2008’ by Sony Vaio in February 2009.
In 2008, Jacky’s scooped the ‘Best Electronics and Entertainment Store’ award for Jacky’s Express at the Mall of the Emirates Retailers’ Annual General Meeting. Jacky’s Electronics also received the ‘Best Electronics and Entertainment Store’ award from the Deira City Centre Annual Retailers.
In June 2007, Jacky’s was recognised as the ‘Best Service Performance Outlet’ in the electronics category by the Dubai Service Excellence Scheme instituted by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry. It is also a member of the Dubai Quality Group. Jacky’s is the only electronics company to be awarded ‘Superbrand’ status five times in a row by the UAE Superbrand Council.
For more information:
Rose Manaog
Action UAE, Dubai,
T: +971 4 3693496
E: rose.m@actionprgroup.com
Jacky’s Retail Office
T: +971 4 2821822
F: +971 4 2821 474
E: retail@jackys.com
Posted by
VMD - [Virtual Marketing Department]
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