Can Tablets Pass the PC in Sales?

Updated

The following video is part of our "Motley Fool Conversations" series, in which developer Chris Bledsoe and senior technology analyst Eric Bleeker discuss topics around the investing world.

In today's edition, Eric and Chris talk about a new forecast from NPD that predicts 383 million tablet sales by 2017. Eric notes that forecasts in the mobile space are typically horrible, with predictions as short as two years ago that Nokia would own the smartphone space in 2015. Mobile markets are just too dynamic to predict with much accuracy beyond the next 12 months. In any case, if NPD does prove relatively accurate and tablets do grow by leaps and bounds, profits might not accrue across the industry. Much of the sales growth would be cheap tablets in emerging markets, a category with little room for profits. If you're looking for a tablet profit play, the only two hardware players worth their salt still look like Apple and Amazon.com.

The Motley Fool has just released a free report on mobile named "The Next Trillion-Dollar Revolution" that details a hidden component play inside mobile phones that's also absolutely dominating the exploding tech market in China. That's the very market driving NPD's bullish forecast of future tablet sales. Inside the report, we not only describe why the mobile revolution will dwarf any other technology revolution seen before it, but we also name the company at the forefront of the trend. Hundreds of thousands have requested access to previous reports, but you can be among the first to access this just-released report by clicking here -- it's free.

At the time thisarticle was published Chris Bledsoe owns shares of Google. Eric Bleeker has no positions in the stocks mentioned above. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, Amazon.com and Google.Motley Fool newsletter services recommendApple, Amazon.com and Google. Try any of our Foolish newsletter servicesfree for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.

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