Tablet Market Continues to Decline but Apple Remains King

Global tablet shipments totaled 44.7 million units for the second quarter compared to 48 million the same period last year, according to data from the research firm’s Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker. “Longer life cycles, increased competition from other categories such as larger smartphones, combined with the fact that end users can install the latest operating systems on their older tablets has stifled the initial enthusiasm for these devices in the consumer market,” said IDC analyst Jitesh Ubrani.

“Although premium handsets sold briskly in developed markets, it was emerging markets, supported by local vendors, driving the momentum that heavily contributed to the second highest quarter of shipments on record”.

The IDC says it’s seeing a shift in the vendor landscape as Apple and Samsung – traditionally the top two vendors – lost market share.

Numbers of tablet shipments from white-box players dropped 16.6 million units or more than 10 percent sequentially, with demand for these devices greatly impacted by large-size smartphones and competitive products from brand vendors, Digitimes says.

According to the report, Apple and Samsung, number 1 and number 2 of the top 5 tablet vendors, both saw year-over-year declines. But a modest progress by Lenovo was seen in the market. “All eyes will now be on the early release of the pending Note 5 and rumored S6 edge plus to come this August”. Lenovo’s market share climbed from 4.9% to 5.7%. The drop was along with market front-runners Apple Inc.

While Apple continued to lead, however, it is certainly not the dominant force that it once was, with the iPad suffering a year-over-year decrease of 17.9 percent negative growth.

With a significant presence in India and Southeast Asia, Xiaomi is now looking to bulk up its IP portfolio to expand its reach even further outside of Asia/Pacific, starting with Brazil.

The pending launches of a third generation Moto X and Moto G look to be on the horizon for the second half of 2015.