Low Tablet Penetration
According to data on the penetration rate of tablet PCs per country released by research firm Strategy Analytics (SA) on May 18, Korea’s tablet PC usage rates is estimated at 26.2 percent this year.
The number is lower than the 43.8 percent in the US, 41.8 percent in the UK, 34.6 percent in Canada, and 29.8 percent in Taiwan. Moreover, the figure is 43.8 percent lower than that of Hong Kong, which has the highest household penetration (70 percent) among 88 countries.
SA predicts that the nation’s tablet PC ownership will gradually increase to reach 43.9 percent in 2018. However, the estimated figure is still lower than the 56.2 percent of the North American region and the 45.3 percent of the West European region.
The ratio of tablet PC users in the country is much lower than the nation’s smartphone penetration rate (more than 70 percent), which is the world’s highest.
Industry analysts are saying that the reason for low tablet PC usage in the nation lies in the fact that there is less demand for tablet PCs since the proportion of phablets used in Korea is much higher than the rest of the world.