Lenovo tablet shipments fall along with market in Q4

Apple kept its position at the top of the overall tablet market with fourth quarter sales of 16.1 million units, a market share of 24.5 per cent despite a drop in unit sales of almost 25 per cent. Amazon, Lenovo, and Huawei rounded off the top five, with 5.2 million, 3.2 million, and 2.2 million global tablet shipments in the fourth quarter respectively. For the entire year, all types of tablets shipped reached almost 207 million, IDC said, down 10% from the 230 million shipped in 2014.

But according to new statistics provided by research firm IDC, the new iPad Pro has managed to outsell the Surface tablet in the fourth quarter of 2015, thus showing that demand for hybrid devices which can be used as both a tablet and a laptop is on the rise. Yet the surprising detail that was found buried within the IDC report was that the iPad Pro actually ended up being the top “Detachable” or 2-in-1 device in Q4 2015. Compare that to Microsoft’s Surface line of tablets, which totaled 1.6 million shipments in total last quarter, IDC says.

“Despite lukewarm reviews, the iPad Pro was the clear victor this season as it was the top selling detachable, surpassing notable entries from Microsoft and other PC vendors”. But Amazon surged into third place, with a $50 slate standalone tablet that was the holiday season’s “surprise hit”, according to IDC.

In addition, Ubrani said Android tablets need to support more of their own tablet-oriented apps, and not primarily smartphone-oriented apps. “However, Google’s recent foray into this space has been rather lackluster as the Android platform will require a lot more refinement to achieve any measurable success”.

For IDC tablet research director Jean Philippe Bouchard, “One of the biggest reasons why detachables are growing so fast is because end users are seeing those devices as PC replacements”. The iPad Pro qualifies as a detachable because Apple sells a clip-on keyboard with folding kickstand as a $169 add-on.

The Strategy Analytics Preliminary Global Tablet Shipments and Market Share by Operating System: Q4 2015 is the source of the figures, and it is not all bad news.