Tablet shipments see a decline yet again with Apple still holding top spot followed by Amazon and Samsung: IDC quarterly report

tech2 News StaffFeb 06, 2018 10:25:00 IST

In what has become routine by now, the worldwide tablet shipments have seen a decline, yet again. This is a decline for the 13th quarter running with Q4 2017 seeing a 7.9 percent drop.

Representational image. Reuters.

According to the latest report from IDC, the worldwide tablet shipment has declined. Around 49.6 million tablets were sold in Q4 2017 as opposed to 53.9 million units sold in the same period last year.

Apple with 13.2 million shipments occupies the top spot in tablet sales, but in terms of growth, it has been a mere 0.6 percent year-over-year growth. But this still gives it a lions share of the tablet market at over 25 percent.

Tablet shipment numbers in millions (Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly PCD Tracker)

Amazon has seen a significant jump in tablet sales — almost 50 percent growth — going from 5.2 million units in Q4 2016 to 7.7 million units in Q4 2017. Thanks to this massive growth, Amazon overtook Samsung in terms of tablet shipments. Samsung occupied the third position with 7 million tablet shipments, a decline of 13 percent year-over-year. According to analysts, the major reason for this upset is the deep discounts on tablets offered by Amazon, as well as the fact that a lot of tablets came bundled with Amazon Alexa voice assistant.

In terms of total shipments for 2017, Apple again emerged as the winner with 43.8 million units shipped (a 3 percent year-over-year growth), followed by Samsung at 24.9 million units and Amazon with 16.7 million units. Huawei and Lenovo occupied the fourth sports with 12.5 million and 10.3 million units sold in 2017.

Tablet shipment numbers in millions (Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly PCD Tracker)

"To date, much of the trajectory of the detachable market has been attributed to Microsoft and Apple pushing their wares in the US,” IDC research analyst Jitesh Ubrani said in a statement. “However, the continued success of this category hinges on the willingness of other PC vendors to participate and more importantly, consumers from other countries to adopt the new form factor over convertible PCs.”