Tablet shipments decline as Apple, Samsung lose market share, says IDC

A new IDC report talks about the decline in tablet shipments in Q4 2014. The report highlights that tablet shipments have declined year-over-year for the first time. In Q4 2014, 76.1 million tablets were shipped worldwide. Though the numbers were down this quarter, they were up 4.4 percent in all of 2014 compared to 2013. Overall, 229.6 million units were shipped last year. Apple’s famed tablet, the iPad,  also continues to **face the slump** . In the Q3 report , while iPhone and Mac sales had jumped, **iPad sales** had fallen to 13.2 million. In this quarter iPad sales dropped to 21 million which is down from the 26 million iPads sold in Q1 of 2014, according to the recent Apple numbers. However, the study notes that Apple still leads the pack, holding onto more than a quarter of the global market share. The company shipped 21.4 million tablets in the fourth quarter and Samsung shipped 11 million units. Although Samsung’s shipments were down for the quarter, it showed one percent growth in 2014. The new iPad models were launched in October last year and it was during the Holiday season that the company may have expected to make some gain. Now, the IDC report points out that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus may have cannabilised iPad sales. It’s not just Apple or Samsung, but all the top five tablet vendors have lost market share, except Lenovo. Lenovo saw a slight 0.5 percent increase compared to the same time last year. With this, Lenovo also saw nine percent growth in shipments year over year, from 3.4 million in Q4 2013 to 3.7 million in Q4 2014. Considering the top five tablet vendors, Amazon experienced the most sales decline. The company had announced new tablets in September, but managed to sell 70 percent less tablets during the Holiday season compared to the previous year. Though fourth quarter saw some decline, overall the year 2014 showed growth. In 2014, Lenovo sold 11.2 million tablet and experiences 43.5 percent growth year over year. besides Lenovo, only Samsung grew 1 percent year over year. Tablet shipments for Apple, however, declined 14.6 percent in 2014, likely due to smaller players eating away its market share. “Although Apple expanded its iPad lineup by keeping around older models and offering a lower entry price point of $249, it still wasn’t enough to spur iPad sales, given the excitement around the launch of the new iPhones,” said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst with IDC. In the past there have been several theories why the tablet market has been declining, from low tablet replacement rate to increasing popularity of phablets, making tablets redundant. However, IDC still maintains that the tablet market will grow in 2015. Jean Philippe Bouchard, research director of tablets at IDC said, “Microsoft’s new OS, a general shift towards larger screen form factor and productivity focused solutions, and technology innovations such as gesture interface that could be introduced in tablets will help the market maintain positive growth in 2015.”