In the morning of March 1, Beijing time, NPD DisplaySearch (hereinafter referred to as "NPD") released a research report on Thursday, saying that the 9.7-inch iPad will be "buried" by the ipad Mini in mid-2013.
According to the report, if the market performance in January can be used as a reference, it can be said that the market has undergone a significant change: the sales volume of 9.7-inch iPad decreased to 1.3 million from 9.4 million in the previous month, while the sales volume of 7-inch and 7.9-inch tablet computers (including ipad Mini) increased from 12 million to 14 million. Judging from this trend, the market will become more unbalanced throughout 2013.
NPD analyst David Hsieh said: 'we think apple is currently planning to sell 55 million iPad minis and 33 million 9.7-inch iPads in 2013, compared with the original plan of 40 million iPad minis and 60 million 9.7-inch iPads. NPD believes that many of the 9.7-inch iPads sold this year will be the iPad 5, which is expected to be similar in design to the ipad Mini, but thinner than the ipad Mini, along with other features.
Other trends for small tablet computers in 2013 include:
Resolution: there will be at least two extremely high resolution 7.9-inch tablet displays: uxga (1920x1200) with a pixel density of 250ppi; QXGA (2048x1536) with a pixel density of 324ppi. The latter is the resolution of the iPad with a 9.7-inch retina display.
Display technology: there are three display technologies available for 7.9-inch tablet: a-Si (amorphous silicon), LTPS (low temperature polycrystalline silicon) and oxide technology, such as igzo. Which technology to use depends largely on the choice of apple (and other tablet manufacturers). Different display manufacturers like different technologies.
More expensive 7.9-inch tablets: so far, 7.9-inch tablets have been cheaper, but that will change. 'with the change of resolution, function and product design, the price of these tablets is likely to increase. '