Malaysians favour Android devices

Mobile internet devices such as laptops and tablets continue to see a surge in demand and experience exponential growth, with Malaysia ranked second in both sales volume and value, thanks to Malaysians spending nearly USD1.1 billion on 2 million of such devices.In January to September this year, consumers across six key markets in Southeast Asia spent over USD4.72 billion on nearly 8.8 million tablets and laptops, reflecting a substantial growth of 12% in value and 26% in volume compared to the same period last year.According to latest GfK Asia retail audit findings across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia, the overall worth of the combined laptop and tablet markets in each and every country expanded between 5% to 22% with all markets managing to achieve robust double-digit volume growth of up to 37%."Our findings show that Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia are the three biggest markets for such gadgets and collectively consume over 70% of the region's sales volume while contributing 67% to the overall dollar value," noted Gerard Tan, account director for digital technology at GfK Asia.Consumption of laptops and tablets in the largest market, Indonesia, reached 2.76 million units-an increase of 37% over the last year and collecting revenue totaling nearly USD1.24 billion.It is worth noting that tablets on the Android operating system (OS) have been dominating the market in both Indonesia and Malaysia, with over seven in every 10 sold (72%) being an Android tablet.GfK insights in particular revealed the two increasingly popularity form factors which are rapidly being adopted across the region-tablets and ultrathin laptops.