Between April and October this year, the percentage of "WiFi-only" tablet connections increased from 60% to 65%, at the expense of the "WiFi plus cellular" and "cellular-only" segments. As you'd expect with a device that relies on connectivity to function as intended, the percentage of "no connectivity" users basically halved - although you have to wonder what on earth that latter group actually uses their tablet for at all.
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| Graphic courtesy of NPD |
Nevertheless, the early adopter sub-group seem to have been intent on having both WiFi and cellular as a hedge against unforeseen potential benefits in the longer term. Unfortunately for the mobile carriers, in the US there has been a significant expansion in public WiFi availability, making cellular-equipped tablets somewhat redundant, and most tablet owners already have smartphone cellular to fulfill any emergency requirement. NPD is predicting that the percentage of purchases of cellular equipped tablets will continue to shrink, leaving the distinct possibility that makers will cease to offer it and tablets such as the Kindle Fire, which don't offer cellular at all, will be seen to be a no-brainer.
Countries such as our own Godzone will be slower to conform to that pattern since our public WiFi infrastructure is way behind the US and Europe, so expect to see sales of cellular equipped tablets to do proportionately better here.
Source: NPD
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