NPD: Tablets Growing at Faster Rate Than Any Connected Device

A reported 109 million tablets are in use among U.S. consumers, according to ZDNet, citing figures from The NPD Group’s Connected Intelligence, Connected Home Report. This drastic rise in tablet ownership marks an increase of 35 million devices from last year, officially making tablets the fastest connected mobile device on the market.

But if tablets are as popular The NPD Group claims, then why are sales dropping faster than ever?

The answer is that current tablet owners are simply aren’t throwing away their current model tablets for the latest and greatest devices. This, in turn, has caused the tablet market to transform into a replacement market, meaning consumers only replace their devices when something breaks, according to Best Buy (BBY) CEO Hubert Joly.

While tablets are more popular than ever, this also means users are willing to hold onto current devices for longer periods of time—either until they break or stop delivering the service users need. And with the level of quality of most tablets on the market these days, this means the average device can keep customers happy for at least two or three years. Hence the dramatic drop in sales.

In fact, tablet sales are expected to slow to 7.2 percent in 2014, according to a recent IDC study, led in part by the first ever decline in Apple (APPL) iPad shipments. Compare those figures to the 52.5 percent increase in tablet sales in 2013 and it’s easy to see why device manufacturers are beginning to sweat.

One of the only saving graces this year for device manufacturers has been the increase in tablets priced less than $250, which have helped to buoy the market, at least somewhat. However, cheaper tablets mean less revenue, so these devices aren’t pulling in the same earnings as their premium-priced brethren. This is certainly a win for the average consumer, but not so much for device makers looking to turn a healthy profit, such as Apple and Samsung.

With the majority of consumers reportedly using their devices to stream video and on-demand cable TV services, according to The NPD Group, don’t expect tablet sales to change unless developers can figure out a way to drastically up the ante on the current generation of devices. That means manufacturers will need to begin taking risks in the name of innovation if they hope to match their past success and sway tablet owners into reaching for their wallets once more.