The latest tablet shipment figures from IDC are out, and the market seems to be shrinking for these devices, as a 14.7 percent drop has been reported by the agency for the first quarter of the year.
According to the report, the first quarter generally isn"t the best for manufacturers, but consumers are also losing interest in the tablet space, which has led to a fall in the shipments. Major manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung and Lenovo saw a negative year-over-year growth, while Amazon and Huawei were the only ones which had a positive quarter.
IDC does not expect many new buyers for premium tablets such as the iPad, and expects only repeat customers to buy them once their old ones are obsolete. The agency has also speculated that manufacturers will find it hard to sell mid-range Android tablets going further, as the demand for Android slates will continue to decline.
Currently the market share of the top five manufacturers as per Q1 shipment data is as follows:
- Apple - 25.9%
- Samsung - 15.2%
- Amazon - 5.7%
- Lenovo - 5.5%
- Huawei - 5.2%
Other manufacturers constitute the remaining 42.6% of the 39.6 million tablets shipped in Q1. Recently, IDC revealed that detachable devices running on Windows would see a growth in market share, and the agency still believes that would happen as the traditional PCs continue to fall as well.
Source: IDC | Image via Daniel Bogan