After reporting the worldwide mobile shipments last week, IDC has now revealed the numbers for global tablet shipments in Q2, 2014. For the first time worldwide tablet shipments recorded a year-over-year decline since the market’s inception in 2010.
In the Q4 of 2014, 76.1 million tablets were shipped worldwide that was down 3.2 percent year-over-year. Even though tablet shipments had declined this quarter, they were up 4.4 percent in all of 2014 with 229.6 million units compared to 2013.
“The tablet market is still very top heavy in the sense that it relies mostly on Apple and Samsung to carry the market forward each year. 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. Meanwhile, Samsung’s struggles continued as low-cost vendors are quickly proving that mid- to high-priced Android tablets simply aren’t cut out for today’s tablet market.”
said Jitesh Ubrani, Senior Research Analyst, Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker.
Apple continued to reign the tablet market with 28.1 market percent share a decrease from 33.1 percent. However, Apple’s tablet shipments decreased from 26 million in Q4 2013 to 21.4 million tablets in Q4 2014. Samsung came in second as its market share decreased from 17.2 percent to 14.5 percent. The South Korean company’s tablet shipments declined from 13.5 million to 11 million. Meanwhile, the remaining spots in the top five for Q4 include Lenovo (4.8%), ASUS (4%), and Amazon (2.3%).
IDC stated that despite an apparent slow-down of the market, it will maintain the forecast about tablet growth in 2015.