Global tablet shipments decline 12.6% in Q3 2015: Report

Just yesterday, IDC revealed its numbers for the worldwide smartphone shipment and today, the research firm is out with report for the global tablet shipments.  A total of 48.7 million units were shipped in the Q3 2015, reporting a 12.6% decline owing to the challenges faced by the tablet market.

The report stated that opportunities for growth are getting fewer with mature markets like North America, Western Europe, and Asia/Pacific are well past 100 million active tablets per region. Apple continued to top the markets by selling 9.9 million iPad units and recording a 20.3% of market share. However, the company saw shipments of its iPad decline 19.7% over the last year. Samsung which came in second also reported a 17.1% YoY decline and shipped 8 million tablets with a 16.5% of market share. IDC said that market’s shift towards detachables has piqued the company’s interest as it launched new devices like the Tab S2 with an optional keyboard to cater to this growing segment. Finally, Lenovo, Asus and Huawei came in third, fourth and fifth with 6.3%, 4% and 3.7% market share respectively.

Giving insights about the latest trends in the tablet market IDC stated that, the industry is seeing a rise in interest from vendors owing to the popularity of detachable tablets. Although detachable tablets have held just a single digit percentage of the overall tablet market, the research firm expects this share to increase dramatically over the next 18 months.

“We continue to get feedback that tablet users are holding onto devices upwards of four years. We believe the traditional slate tablet has a place in the personal computing world. However, as the smartphone installed base continues to grow and the devices get bigger and more capable, the need for smaller form factor slate tablets becomes less clear. With shipment volumes slowing over four consecutive quarters, the market appears to be in transition.”

said Ryan Reith, Program Director with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers.