Ultramobiles to drive hybrid device boom

Gartner predicts 21.5 million hybrid devices will ship in 2015, driven by hybrid ultramobile growth

Driven by the swift growth of hybrid ultramobiles, shipments of hybrid devices are on course for sharp growth in 2015, according to Gartner.

Hybrid devices are on track to reach 21.5 million units shipped globally in 2015, a rise of 70 per cent from 2014, the analyst said. It expects hybrid devices to make up 12 per cent of mobile PC sales this year, and then continue to rise, accelerating to 26 per cent by 2019.

Tracy Tsai, research director at Gartner, said the growth is being driven by hybrid ultramobiles.

"Of the 21.5 million hybrid devices shipped in 2015, eight million will be ultramobile tablets (two-in-one tablets) and 13.5 million hybrid ultramobiles (two-in-one detachable and convertible ultramobiles). This will make hybrid ultramobiles the fastest-growing segment of the mobile PC market, with 77 per cent year-on-year growth," she said.

"The combination of portability, productivity and flexibility of touch and a keyboard in one device is attracting some notebook and tablet users to replace their devices with hybrid form factors. PC vendors are expanding into this segment with a value proposition to compete with Apple and Android-based tablet vendors."

Hybrid ultramobiles are yet to make a big impact in the enterprise market, but Tsai said this is likely to change with the introduction of Windows 10.

"Windows 10 on hybrid ultramobiles will offer a better user experience with touch and voice as well as universal Windows apps – apps written just once that receive device-specific user experience tweaks to allow them to run on different Windows devices," she said.

Asus led the way in the hybrid ultramobile market last year with 41 per cent market share, according to Gartner. The vendor shipped 3.1 million hybrid ultramobile units in 2014, a rise of 263 per cent year on year.

Coming in second in this market was Lenovo, with 1.9 million shipments in 2014, up 331 per cent year on year.

After broadening its range of consumer models, HP came in third, shipping 800,000 units last year.