Tablets to be worth £30bn by 2015

The tablet device market will be worth £30bn by 2015, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

This will make the global tablet market the third-largest consumer electronics sector, after televisions and PCs.

Technology decision makers across various industries are already putting infrastructure in place to support the use of tablet devices, such as Apple's iPad, as they are being used within the business as a result of the consumerisation of IT.

And these decision makers would do well to put the necessary technologies in place sooner rather than later, as by 2015, 148 million tablet devices will be sold per year.

"Tablets are a high-value casual computing segment that is creating huge growth opportunities for major brands such as Apple and Samsung," said Peter King, director of Strategy Analytics, according to a Reuters report.

"We predict 80 per cent of the value of the tablet market in 2015 will reside in both high-tier models (consumed in the West), but that entry-tier models will see big uptake in the developing world.

"On a global basis, tablet revenues will exceed those of every consumer electronics category except TVs and PCs by 2015."