By Patrick Avenell

While suppliers and retailers traditionally focus on delivering products to the uninitiated, in a quest to improve penetration rates, Deloitte has overnight predicted that the most likely consumer of a new tablet during 2012 will be an existing tablet owner.

Whether it’s to divest usage across both the iOS and Android operating systems, to add a second or third unit to a household, or for dedicated business and personal usage, multiple tablet ownership is the stand-out trend predicted by Deloitte’s annual Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) report.

“The tablet explosion has shown little sign of slowing since it hit the market in 2010,” said national Australia TMT leader Damien Tampling. “It is set to take the mantle of the most rapid ‘multi-anything’ market penetration in history.”

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Although Android tablet suppliers in Australia have privately spoken of their frustration in this category, with low margins, fierce competition from no-name brands and the complete dominance of Apple’s iPad, Deloitte has predicted that existing tablet owners will purchase $2 billion worth tablets during 2012.

“The ubiquitous tablet is penetrating the corporate world, with more than 25 per cent of tablet sales in Australia expected to be generated by companies seeking greater mobility for their employees,” Tampling said. “This is both an opportunity and a challenge.

“Any vendor that is able to offer seamless sharing among families of devices, as a well as a common user interface, is likely to get the competitive advantage.

“The demand for faster bandwidth and more data can be met in the workplace, in part through Wi-Fi, with data backups between tablets sent via short range networks.”