It’s likely that the tablet market will continue to decline, however it’s unclear if it will eventually hold in terms of sales, or if it will disappear altogether.
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Taking a closer look at some of the numbers of individual vendors, Samsung’s overall shipments fell from 8 million units during Q2, 2015 to just 6 million units during the same period this year. Still, the companies managed to ship 10 million and 6 million units respectively during the period.
In June, IDC predicted global tablet shipments would drop by 9.6% for all of 2016, up from a prediction of a 6% decline in March.
For the seventh straight quarter tablet shipments have declined, with the second quarter of this year showing a 12.3 percent year-over-year decline, according to market research firm IDC.
IDC said the tablet decline would occur even when newer detachables tablets are included with slate tablets.
Following Samsung, Lenovo maintained its number three position with 2.5 million units shipped and 6.6% of the market, and Huawei in fourth grew 71% to 2.2 million units and 5.6% of the market. Slates “are not coming back”, IDC analyst Jean Phillippe Bouchard said at the time. Much of the online retailer’s success can be attributed to attractively-priced devices like the $50 Fire Tablet that was launched by the company just ahead of the holiday season past year.
Strategy states that pro slates, such as the iPad Pro and Surface Pro 4, are being purchased by both consumers and enterprises more “than ever before as prices reach tolerable levels and as computing behaviours and needs shift toward more mobility and touchscreen interfaces”.
In an interview, Canalys analyst Tim Coulling said detachables for business are “not seeing great growth for the moment, but consumer tablets are decreasing and we don’t see that ending”.
65% of all tablets shipped in the past quarter were based on Android OS, which is followed by iOS with 26%, while Windows fell on the third place.
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Meanwhile, much like in the world of smartphones, Android seems to be winning the battle of the operating systems in this sector as well, although, it is not almost as dominant in this category.
