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Tablet design is its own worst enemy

Lauren Kate Rawlins
By Lauren Kate Rawlins, ITWeb digital and innovation contributor.
Johannesburg, 03 Aug 2015
Tablet sales decline worldwide due to longer life cycles and the rise of the phablet.
Tablet sales decline worldwide due to longer life cycles and the rise of the phablet.

Global tablet shipments totalled 44.7 million units in Q2 compared to 48 million during the same period last year, declining 7%, according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker.

"Marked by little hardware innovation and limited vendor portfolio updates, the market also declined -3.9% compared to the first quarter of 2015," says IDC.

"Longer life cycles, increased competition from other categories such as larger smartphones, combined with the fact that end-users can install the latest operating systems on their older tablets, has stifled the initial enthusiasm for these devices in the consumer market," says Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst, worldwide mobile device trackers.

"Tablets are big in the education market, but perhaps even bigger among executives who are constantly on the move or in and out of meetings," says Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx.

"The excellent design work that has gone into tablets has tended to be their own worst enemy, in terms of ongoing sales. Once you have a tablet, there is little reason to get another one two or even three years later."

Goldstuck explains: "Unlike computers, tablets do not feel obsolete after a year or two. Someone with an iPad 3 has no compelling reason to upgrade to the latest iPad, especially since all iPads get a similar upgrade when new versions of iOS arrive.

"Similar issues apply to Android tablets. It is only the techies who can tell the difference between different versions of Android and for whom an upgrade to a newer Android tab may seem necessary. Even Windows tablets can now be upgraded to the latest version of Windows at no cost."

He says in South Africa tablet penetration keeps rising, although sales are on the decline.

However, "there is no paradox here: we are simply seeing fewer new tablets being bought each year, but these sales still add to the installed base, which does not get rid of old tablets".

"There is a definite link between the rise of the phablet and the decline of the tablet. A 5.5-inch smartphone can do much of what a 7-inch tablet does. There is little reason to carry both," notes Goldstuck.

Market share

"Beyond the decline, we're seeing a profound shift in the vendor landscape as the top two vendors, Apple and Samsung, lose share in the overall market," says Jean Philippe Bouchard, IDC research director for tablets.

Despite a continued decline in shipments for its iPad product line, Apple maintained its lead in the worldwide tablet market, shipping 10.9 million units in the second quarter.

Samsung held its second position in the market with 7.6 million units shipped and 17% market share in 2Q15. Lenovo maintained its third position with 2.5 million units and 5.7% share of the market.

LG and Huawei ended the quarter in a statistical tie for fourth place, rounding out the top five, with each shipping 1.6 million devices.

Share outside the top five continued to outgrow the market, representing 46% of total tablet shipments in 2Q15, states the report.

In June, IDC reported the Middle East and Africa (MEA) tablet market recorded its first year-on-year decline in the first quarter of the year, with shipments to the region declining 5.8%, to 3.83 million units. This came after years of successive gains in the MEA region.

In March, IDC announced it would scale back its five-year forecast for the tablet product category, following the first year-over-year decline in worldwide tablet shipments in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Top five worldwide tablet vendors:
Preliminary results for the second quarter of 2015 (shipments in millions)

Vendor

2Q15 unit shipments

2Q15 market share

2Q14 unit shipments

2Q14 market share

Year-over-year growth

1. Apple

10.9

24.5%

13.3

27.7%

-17.9%

2. Samsung

7.6

17.0%

8.6

18.0%

-12.0%

3. Lenovo

2.5

5.7%

2.4

4.9%

6.8%

4. Huawei*

1.6

3.7%

0.8

1.7%

103.6%

4. LG Electronics*

1.6

3.6%

0.5

1.0%

246.4%

Others

20.4

45.6%

22.4

46.7%

-9.3%

Total

44.7

100%

48

100%

-7%

* IDC declares a statistical tie in the worldwide tablet market when there is less than 0.1% difference in the market share (based on shipments) of two or more vendors.

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