Tablets market set for slowed growth – IDC

IDC “scaled back” its five-year outlook for the tablet sector, with growth slowing to “low single digits”, underpinned by demand from the commercial sector and Microsoft gaining traction in this market.

The review comes after the tablet sector saw its first year-on-year decrease in the lucrative Q4 sales period, as market leaders Apple and Samsung struggled.

“Despite the growing popularity of phablets, there still remains a portion of the market that wants to use a larger device so they can tailor their experience to the appropriate screen size,” said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst for IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker.

“Meanwhile, an increasing number of vendors behind small tablets are reducing prices and adopting features like voice calling to entice consumers to purchase their products over competing phablets, making the dynamics of phablets versus voice-capable tablets an interesting one to watch,” the researcher continued.

In terms of platforms, Android will remain the leader, with close to two-thirds market share over the course of the forecast. Interestingly, IDC said that “once-upon-a-time leader iOS is likely the weakest link as IDC expects its volume share of the market to decline in in 2015, reaching levels below that of the past three years”.

The company also said that despite modest adoption to date, Windows is expected to gain a significant share, growing from 5.1 per cent in 2014 to 14.1 per cent in 2019.

“There is an appetite for a platform that can provide a productivity experience that remains consistent across multiple form factors and device types, and we believe Microsoft is well positioned to capture some of that demand,” said Jean Philippe Bouchard, research director, tablets at IDC.