IHS ups tablet forecast on strong iPad growth

Industry researcher IHS iSuppli raised its forecast of media tablet shipments this year, saying Apple Inc.'s iPad will continue to dominate the fast-growing market for years.The unit of IHS Corp. now expects media table shipments to more than triple to 60 million units this year, up from the researcher's May forecast of 58.9 million units.

The new figures will help propel media tablet shipments to 275.3 million units in 2015, up from the previously expected 262.1 million.

The market researcher projects iPads will account for 44.2 million of those shipments, up from its earlier 43.7 million forecast. They are expected to reach 120.1 million units in 2015, up from the previous 97.9 million outlook.

IHS had lowered its forecast earlier this year after the technology behemoth ran into production and supply problems, but the delays were soon resolved.

Apple is now expected to account for 74% of media tablet shipments in 2011 and will claim the majority of the market through 2013, IHS said.

The revised figures show the how competitors are stuggling to mirror the iPad's success. Hewlett-Packard Co. recently said it will exit the tablet space just 14 months after it bought Palm Inc. partly for the purpose of acquiring an operating system for its tablet product.

Makers of tablets using Google Inc.'s Android operating system are also facing slower-than-expected sales and lagging content development, IHS said.Competing researcher International Data Corp. also raised its full-year media tablet forecast in June, brushing off a 28% sequential decline in first-quarter shipments that threatened to lower the year's total. IDC nevertheless raised its 2011 shipment forecast to 53.5 million units from its prior projection of 50.4 million units.

The eReader market--which IDC counts separately--should rise 24% to 16.2 million units in 2011, the researcher said.India's new telco policy to include converged services lawIndia's new telecommunications policy will include a law to regulate television, internet and telephone services provided on a single network, the senior most official in the department of telecommunications said Thursday.

The new Convergence of Communications Act will help reduce the capital expenditure of telecom operators who can offer multiple services on a single network and can even share the network with other operators, R. Chandrashekhar, the telecom secretary, said at a regulatory seminar.The government earlier said it expects to announce the telecommunications policy by October.