The tablet market declined for the 14th quarter in a row, with detachables representing the only category to see growth, market intelligence firm IDC has reported.
While 2017 only saw single-digit declines, first quarter 2018 ushered in a double digit decline.
The tablet market downfall began in the fourth quarter of 2014. According to preliminary data from IDC, first quarter 2018 saw an 11.7 percent year-over-year decline.
First quarter saw 31.7 million units shipped worldwide compared to last year’s 35.8 million units in the same quarter.
Apple kept its top spot with Samsung taking second and Huawei coming in third. Apple’s shipments were up by 200,000 — a gain of 3.9 percent — and Samsung shipped 700,000 fewer tablets. Huawei shipped 400,000 more tablets — about a 2.2 percent gain — to secure its position in third place.
Most notable was Amazon, which fell from second place in the holiday quarter to fifth place. The drop was an almost 50 percent decline over last year.
However, detachable tablets are seeing growth. With Chrome OS entering the detachable market, IDC research analyst Jitesh Ubrani says Google is a serious contender from a platform perspective.
“Google’s tighter control and integration of Chrome OS will allow brands to focus more on hardware design and additional services rather than spending resources reconfiguring Android to work in a detachable setting,” said Ubrani.
With Microsoft’s work to run Windows on ARM processors, combined with Google’s entrance into the market, detachables are likely to see strong growth going forward.
Source: Venture Beat
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