The IDC expects worldwide tablet shipments to reach 227.4 million units in 2013.
In particular, tablet adoption by U.S. businesses is surging.
By the IDC’s own admission, education projects and adoption in vertical markets such as retail are contributing factors as this segment is set to slowly double from the 10% share it held in 2012 to 20% by 2017.
But did the explosion in tablet usage in the enterprise sector really catch Google off guard?
It certainly caught Google Chairman Eric Schmidt by surprise.
“I was actually surprised by this. I didn’t call this. Would the phone replace the PC? I figured employees would be using a PC and a phone,” Schmidt said last week at the Gartner Symposium/IT Expo 2013 in Orlando, Florida.
“It looks to us like the majority of enterprise computing is being done on mobile devices, in particular on tablets. That broke the old model,” he added.
Schmidt subsequently revealed his opinion that the migration toward tablets from PCs will effectively cause many – if not most – companies to “dismantle” their current business-as-usual approach to technology.
