The tablet market in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) rose 175.6% during the second quarter of 2013 to 3.6 million units, making the region among strongest growing market globally, new research has revealed.
IDC’s latest report said that the growth was mainly fuelled by low-cost Android devices.
Android tablets accounted for about 84% of the overall CEE tablet market, while market share of Windows and Windows RT devices rose and iOS devices reported drop in market share.
IDC CEMA programme manager Nikolina Jurisic said:"A large variety of tablets with low prices, especially Android, drove sales in the price-sensitive consumer segment.
"This trend is expected to continue as the competition in the low end of the market intensifies, with new second-tier vendors entering the market and forcing international vendors to further reduce prices."
The report also added there was a rise in more Linux devices being adopted, mainly fueld by white box vendors in Russia and Ukraine.
IDC said it expects the over tablet shipments in the region to reach about 15 million units by the end of 2013, a 105% rise compared to 2012.
Over a five-year forecast period, the CEE tablet market is expected to post a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.6% and reach 25.6 million shipments by 2017.
"The PC and tablet markets are going through a major transition, with tablets making a greater claim on consumers’ IT budgets," Jurisic said.
"Tablet shipments are driven by low price tags, portability, ease of use, and the increasing popularity of social media applications.
"As a result, tablets are expected to surpass portable PCs in volume terms in the last quarter of 2013."
The report also forecasted that the android-based tablet devices would continue to dominate until 2017, while Windows OS tablets would account for 9.2% market share, whereas Windows RT would reach 1% share.
By 2017, iOS tablets would account for about 13% of the overall market by the forecast period.
