Dive Brief:
- The tablet market recorded lower shipments for the fourth straight quarter, with 48.7 million units shipped in the third quarter of 2015, according to data from the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker. Overall, tablet shipments were down 12.6% year over year.
- Apple, Samsung and Lenovo hold the top three spots in market share, but even Apple saw growth decline 19.7%. Samsung dropped 17.1%.
- Detachables, which have produced only a single digit percentage of the tablet market, is expected to see a noteworthy increase over the next 18 months according to IDC.
Dive Insight:
The tablet market is facing major challenges.
Users are keeping tablets for four or more years and smartphones are larger and more powerful, said Ryan Reith, program director with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers.
"With shipment volumes slowing over four consecutive quarters, the market appears to be in transition," Reith said.
Some experts say tablets and PCs sales are slowing because an even better solution is emerging. It’s actually a combination of devices, also commonly referred to as hybrids, or detachables. Hybrid devices provide the best both worlds — a mobile friendly device that also has the power to serve as a core business device.
"The first generation of detachable tablets failed to gain much traction, as they represented a series of compromises in terms of both operating system and hardware that few consumers or businesses were willing to accept," said Tom Mainelli, program vice president, Devices & Displays at IDC. "The devices shipping now represent a clear evolution of both OS and hardware, and it's our expectation that both home and pro users will begin to embrace the form factor in larger numbers going forward."
