IDC Sees Global Tablet Shipments Declining 8.1% This Year

Global tablet shipments will reach 211.3 million units in 2015, down 8.1 percent from 2014, IDC said Tuesday in its quarterly tablet tracker forecast. The new forecast follows three consecutive quarters of declining worldwide tablet shipments in 2015, IDC said. “Despite the challenges facing the overall market, IDC expects detachable tablets will continue to represent a growing portion of total shipments,” it said. “We're witnessing a real market transition as end users shift their demand towards detachables and more broadly towards a productivity-based value proposition. The proliferation of detachable offerings from hardware vendors continues to help drive this switch.” IDC is “confident” that the detachables segment will nearly double in size in the next year, recording more than 75 percent growth compared with 2015, it said.