Global tablet shipments fall for the fifteenth quarter in a row

[midian182]

In brief: Do you feel like stories on the declining tablet industry have been going on for years? That’s because they have. The slate market has shown YoY falls for fifteen quarters in a row, and Q2 2018 didn’t bring any improvements, with only Apple and Huawei seeing yearly growth.

According to IDC’s latest findings, 33 million tablets were shipped in the second quarter of the year, marking a 13.5 percent decline compared to the same period in 2017. The report includes slates and detachables, such as Microsoft’s Surface Book line.

What’s especially concerning is that in previous years, the tablet market’s YoY decline could be measured in single-digits, but it fell in double-digit figures during both quarters of 2018.

Apple remained the top tablet vendor by a large margin and was one of only two firms to experience a shipment increase—if only by 100,000 units. With the market declining so much, Cupertino saw its share jump 5 points to 34.9 percent. Apple recently said iPad purchases in Asia are booming, and its latest, cheaper iPad has also helped boost sales.

It was a good quarter for Huawei. The Chinese giant, which recently overtook Apple as the world’s second-largest smartphone vendor, saw shipments increase 7.7 percent, though it remains behind Samsung. The Korean firm’s shipments fell by a million units YoY, but it hung onto second place thanks to the 5 million tablets it shipped.

According to IDC research analyst Jitesh Ubrani, the tablet market’s future isn’t as bleak as one might think, and he notes that the detachables segment is experiencing growth.

“The detachable market is at a crucial stage as it has been driven primarily by premium products from Microsoft and Apple and growth has slowed in recent months.” He said.

“Though consumers and businesses alike have shown interest in the detachable form factor, those operating on tighter budgets have had very few options available to them and hence some have opted for traditional PCs. However, with the launch of the Surface Go, Chrome OS-based detachables, and hopefully a more affordable iPad Pro in the future, the detachable category still has a bright future, provided the performance and software lines up with users’ expectations.”

Another report from Strategy Analytics showed a similar trend, though it had the market declining by a lesser 6 percent

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[Uncle Al]

Unsustainable growth without innovation has never been possible for any length of time. Markets have ups and downs. The key is profit. As long as the company is making money on a product it continues to be viable. Those that end a product on the claim "not enough profit" and have no replacement show profound ignorance ......

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I'm surprised they didnt fall further. Outside of the tab S3, the entirety of the Android market is cheap junk. Apple is the only other company putting flagship SoCs into their machines, and the only company to make a decent sub 10" tablet.

Nvidia is gone

Google is gone

LG makes 1 or 2 junk machines.

The asus transformer line is extinct.

Honestly surprised the market hasnt completely collapsed.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

The TABLET will rise again!!!

When the roll-up folding screen with a wireless charger gets established, I will want one.

 

[dob_1]

Bloat killed my Asus Transformer. It's just got slower and slower often stopping for 5 minutes to do stuff in the background. If I'm going to use it for anything I really have to put in into Airplane mode so nothing else goes on and then Oh yes I can't use the internet! Oh well, back to the trusty laptop, but that only gives me a couple of hours on battery. So back to the plugged in PC to wrestle with Windows 10s continual crashes since the last update. Oh it's great to have first world problems!