Tablet Category Declines for 12th Consecutive Quarter, Says IDC Report

Four of the top tablet vendors posted growth for Q3, but the category declined 5.4 percent year over year, dropping for the 12th consecutive quarter, said a preliminary IDC report Friday. Samsung was the outlier, with an 8 percent shipment drop to 6 million units as its market share slipped to 15 percent from 15.4 percent, IDC said. Apple continued to lead the segment with 25.8 percent share on shipments rising 11 percent to 10.3 million, it said. Amazon had strong growth at 39 percent, holding 11 percent share on 4.4 million shipments. Huawei and Lenovo rounded out the pack with 3 million shipments each and roughly 7.5 percent share, but Huawei had 19 percent growth compared to Lenovo’s 9 percent. Many low-cost slate tablets are “simply long-awaited replacements,” and first-time tablet buyers are becoming “harder to find,” said analyst Jitesh Ubrani. Meanwhile, growth in the detachable tablet market has been “slower than expected” as Apple and Microsoft make up most of the market, while other PC vendors favor the convertible PC form factor, IDC said. A recent IDC survey showed convertible and detachable tablet owners were “far more inclined” to recommend a convertible than a detachable," said analyst Linn Huang. The holiday season will be critical for the detachables category as momentum "has steadily swung toward detachables,” Huang said. Samsung offers one of the broadest ranges of detachable tablets in multiple screen sizes and operating systems but they're less than 10 percent of its Q3 shipments, said IDC. “These high-priced, halo devices have led to Samsung's premium image,” IDC said, but the company still relies heavily on lower cost Tab A and E devices. That could create “long-term issues as rival tablet vendors often offer products at a better value,” it said.