Tablet market remains in doldrums

The worldwide tablet market continued its lacklustre performance in Q2, as global shipments fell 13.5 per cent year-on-year to 33 million units, IDC announced.

Slate tablets accounted for the majority of units with shipments of 28.4 million units, a decrease of 14.5 per cent. The detachable market also slowed, due to high-profile launches in Q2 2017 and the absence of updates to these this year.

“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,” said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst for IDC’s mobile device trackers.

Launches of Microsoft’s Surface Go, Chrome OS-based detachables and “hopefully a more affordable iPad Pro in the future”, means the category still has a bright future, “provided the performance and software lines up with users’ expectations”, Ubrani continued.

The first generation of Windows 10 on Snapdragon devices failed to impress “as sluggish performance and the limited numbers of available programmes and apps prevented the first few products in the category from achieving mass market success,” Lauren Guenveur, senior research analyst for IDC’s tablet team, said.

IDC noted the Snapdragon 850 chip, specifically targeting detachable devices, as well as tools from Microsoft to bring 64-bit apps to the platform, means there is a “promising future for this line of products”.

Windows on Snapdragon could boost detachable sales “particularly in the woefully underserved mid-market segment”.

Top manufacturers
In terms of vendors, Apple continued to rule the roost. The launch of a new iPad, improvements to the OS and a renewed push into education “seems to be paying off for the company”, IDC said.

Samsung maintained its number two spot, despite a year-on-year shipment decline greater than that of the market (see chart, below, click to enlarge). The vendor’s slate and detachable shipments both declined as its portfolio aged, with the exception of “a couple of product refreshes in the slate category”.

Huawei was, alongside Apple, the only company to grow its share. The majority of shipments continued to be in Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, which accounted for nearly half of its total. 

*In May 2018, Lenovo closed its jv with Fujitsu and took over majority ownership of Fujitsu’s PC business, which includes tablets activities. The table combines shipments for both periods.