Tablet sales in Phl surge to 95% in Q1

CEBU, Philippines - With the constantly changing mobile industry in the Philippines, innovations continue to provide gadget consumers a lot of options on what can boost their productivity whether in work or business.

The country’s tablet market continue to increase further and is expected to post a 40 percent growth this year, said Calum Chrisholm, country manager of Intel Philippines, a computing innovation firm.

The manager cited that tablet (mobile computer) sales in the country soared by 95 percent in the first three months of this year.

A report from International Data Corporation, a research firm, has revealed that a total of 598,375 tablets were shipped to the Philippines in first quarter of 2014, posing a 110 percent growth--the highest yearly growth so far among Southeast Asian nations.

Presently, Asia Pacific and Japan represents 16 percent of the global tablet demand and it is expected in 2017 that the region will reach one fifth of global demand which will transform the two the fastest growing region in the world for tablets.

The chipmaker firm will focus this year on producing 2-in-1 devices and tablets to innovate personal computing experience, Chrisholm said during the Intel’s Mobility Roadshow in Cebu Monday.

With the emerging mobile market, there is a need to have clamshells and notebooks as one device, said Wowie Wong, the chipmaker’s market development manager: “Now really is the pinnacle of all these tablet devices.

Chrisholm explained that the main purpose of the 2-in-1 device is to give people two uses: as tablet and notebook as well.

He said consumers can take advantage of the mobility of a tablet and the power of a laptop which is more efficient to use when working and doing business.

The chipmaker is working with multinational companies and local partners as well to allow accessibility of affordable devices to more digital consumers, he added.

It is also linking with Original Equipment Manufacturer partners to integrate the 64-bit technology to increase mobile performance and storage capacity.

The country manager has foreseen emerging technologies specifically wearable devices will have a rapid increase this year.

And this should drive for digital literacy and more affordable devices for the people, he also said.