Dive Brief:

• The IDC says global tablet shipments are expected to fall 8.1% in 2015 from a year ago, and have declined for the last three consecutive quarters, the Wall Street Journal reported.
• The company says tablet sales have been hurt by the growing size and sophistication of smartphones as well as the growing popularity of detachable tablets.
• Experts say not even Apple’s new iPad Pro, which has the same dimensions as a notebook computer, will be enough to turn the tablet market around.

Dive Insight:

The detachable segment appears to hold the most promise for growth. IDC predicts that market will grow 75% in 2015.

“We’re starting to see the impact of competition within this space as the major platform vendors—Apple, Google and Microsoft —now have physical product offerings,” said Jean Philippe Bouchard, the research director of IDC’s tablets division.

Though Apple says its new iPad Pro is more powerful than 80% of notebook computers shipped in the past year, experts say it may not be enough to turnaround the company’s tablet sales.

“We believe the Pro to be the only reason for Apple to gain tablet market share in the coming years,” said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst of IDC’s world-wide mobile device trackers. “At the same time we expect Windows-based devices—slates and detachables combined—to more than double its market share by 2019.”