Ouch! Tablet sales fell 20%in the 3Q, with shipments of Apple’s (AAPL) iPad dipping 20% in the quarter to fall below 10 million units for the first time, according to data released today by Canalys.
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Despite signs of a slight seasonal improvement, shipments were down 12.6 percent year over year. While vendors managed to ship an estimated 581.9 million units globally last year, signifying a growth of 36 percent over 2013, the number is expected to be significantly lower this year on account of the ongoing downturn in the fortunes of the tablet industry. IDC blamed the decline on “mature markets like North America, Western Europe, and Asia/Pacific [having] well past 100 million active tablets per region”.
IDC however noted that it expects market conditions to get better over the next year and a half, what with newer form factors like detachable tablets coming to the fore.
Decisions, decisions. With so many great tablets on the market, and new contenders arriving every few months, you can be forgiven for finding it hard to make up your mind – buying a new tablet presents a genuinely tough choice.
As far as top vendors in the tablet market goes, Apple still leads with a 20.3 per cent market share, followed by Samsung which has a market share of 16.5 per cent. In third position is Lenovo with 6.3 per cent market share, followed by Asus and Huawei. IDC flags the impending launch of the iPad Pro as a potential silver lining for the company as the market shifts towards productivity-enabling devices.
“The devices shipping now represent a clear evolution of both OS and hardware, and it’s our expectation that both home and pro users will begin to embrace the form factor in larger numbers going forward”.
New iPads were not announced until the end of Q3, meaning that the vast majority of Apple’s shipments comprised of products that have not been refreshed for over a year. Though the Galaxy-maker is one of the few remaining premium Android tablet vendors, the bulk of their shipments have focused on the low end. With the launch of the Tab S2, Samsung tried to play in the growing detachables market.
IDC said it is a victim of its own success in the space.
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Sales of tablets have continued to fall in the third quarter of this year – that’s the fourth quarter in a row showing a decline. Asus has still been able to capture a spot in the top 5 largely due to its low-priced Android tablet portfolio.
