Global sales of 'smart devices' surging: study

Global sales of so-called smart connected devices—computers, smartphones and tablets—rose sharply in the past quarter, driven by smartphones and tablets, a survey showed Wednesday.

The IDC report said shipment reached 267.3 million units in the second quarter, a 27.4 percent increase year-over-year and a 2.8 percent rise from the prior quarter.

On a revenue basis, the total was $131.5 billion worldwide, up 16 percent from a year ago but down 2.7 percent from the past quarter.

IDC projects a growth rate of 14 percent for the devices through 2016. Smartphones already represent over 59 percent of the category and will grow to 63 percent in four years.

Tablets will rise from around a 10 percent share this year to 13 percent by 2016, reducing PC share from 31 percent to 24 percent, IDC said.

"The recent shipment data clearly demonstrates that we have fully entered into the multi-device era, where individuals are buying and using multiple devices per person, most often with different combinations of operating systems," said IDC's Bob O'Donnell.

"The implications of this development on application developers, device makers, Web service providers, businesses, and even individuals is profound."

IDC says the worldwide total unit shipments for smart connected devices will reach nearly 1.2 billion in 2012, and top two billion units in 2016.