EGHAM, United Kingdom – Worldwide shipments of hybrid devices – portability,
productivity and flexibility of touch and a keyboard – are on pace to reach
21.5 million units in 2015, an increase of 70 percent from 2014, according to
Gartner Inc. Hybrid devices will account for 12 percent of total sales of
mobile PCs in 2015, rising to 26 percent in 2019.
“Of the 21.5 million hybrid devices shipped in 2015, 8 million will
be ultramobile tablets (two-in-one tablets) and 13.5 million hybrid ultramobiles
(two-in-one detachable and convertible ultramobiles). This will make hybrid
ultramobiles the fastest-growing segment of the mobile PC market with 77 percent
year-on-year growth,” said Tracy Tsai, research director at Gartner.
“The combination of portability, productivity and flexibility of
touch and a keyboard in one device is attracting some notebook and tablet users
to replace their devices with hybrid form factors,” said Ms. Tsai. “PC
vendors are expanding into this segment with a value proposition to compete
with Apple and Android-based tablet vendors. Sales of hybrid devices have not
stopped growing since 2012, totaling 12.6 million units in 2014 and expected to
reach 58 million units in 2019.”
Gartner analysts added that, despite hybrid devices achieving strong
growth, clamshells will remain the mainstream form factor, accounting for 87
percent of mobile PCs in 2015 and 74 percent in 2019.
Consumer and Business
Markets
PC vendors are expanding into hybrid devices for
notebook and tablet users – the primary targets for the hybrid form factor.
According to a Gartner survey of more than 21,000 respondents across five
countries (U.S., China, Brazil, India and Germany) conducted
in the third quarter of 2014, as many as 11 percent of tablet users, 10 percent
of desktop users and 8 per cent of notebook users are considering replacing
their current device with a hybrid device in the next two years.
In the enterprise segment, IT departments are
struggling to make a compelling case to purchase hybrid ultramobiles for users
because the PC installed base is predominantly Windows 7 and legacy
applications are not touch-based. “However, this will change when businesses
start to migrate to Windows 10,” said Tsai. “Windows 10 on hybrid
ultramobiles will offer a better user experience with touch and voice as well
as universal Windows apps – apps written just once that receive device-specific
user experience tweaks to allow them to run on different Windows devices.”
Businesses
will also need to prepare for the end of extended Windows 7 support by January
2020. It is now a good time to look beyond the clamshell notebook to consider if
other form factors will make a better productivity fit.
Market Overview
Asus,
the first vendor to introduce a two-in-one ultramobile, was the No. 1 hybrid
ultramobile device vendor in 2014 with 41 percent market share. Asus shipped 3.1
million hybrid ultramobile units, up 263 percent year on year. To keep up its market share, Asus needs to increase investment in
convertible-type hybrids with smaller screen sizes of less than 13 inches, and
broaden the price bands it addresses. Currently, hybrid ultramobiles are accounting
for 15 percent of Asus’ mobile PC shipments in 2014, the highest mix ratio
among all PC vendors.
Lenovo took the No. 2 position in 2014 with 1.9 million shipments of
hybrid ultramobiles, an increase of 331 percent year on year. Lenovo focused its hybrid strategy on expanding into the
consumer market, and successfully increased its share of hybrid ultramobiles in
North America from 6 percent in 2013 to 31 percent in 2014. Similarly in
Western Europe, Lenovo’s hybrid ultramobile market share grew from 16.5 percent
to 27 percent from 2013 to 2014.
HP was the third-largest player in the hybrid
ultramobile market in 2014, selling 800,000 units. In 2014, HP significantly
expanded its product line in this segment with a broad range of consumer models
across a variety of price points, from $199 to $1,999. This enabled the company
to rise from the No. 7 position in 2013.
Microsoft’s Surface is classified as a tablet
ultramobile rather than a hybrid ultramobile under Gartner’s definition, as the
touch-and-type keyboard is optional. In the ultramobile tablet
segment, Microsoft was No. 1 with 36 percent market share in 2014. Combining
the ultramobile hybrid and the ultramobile tablet, Microsoft was No. 3 with 14
percent market share worldwide, just behind Asus and Lenovo.
