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Tablet market to take a knock

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 13 Nov 2018
Amid the overall decline of tablet sales worldwide, brands tend to offer lower prices to retain customers, says TrendForce.
Amid the overall decline of tablet sales worldwide, brands tend to offer lower prices to retain customers, says TrendForce.

Global tablet shipments are expected to decline 4.3% year-on-year in 2018 to 145.5 million units, as shipments of entry-level devices grow weaker due to the rise of smart speakers and unfavourable currency exchange rates.

This is according to market research firm TrendForce.

"With the launch of new devices in the coming era of 5G, the tablet category will still help the brands build a strategic future, retaining their customer bases and becoming more influential in the global IOT [Internet of things] network," says Kou-Han Tseng, TrendForce notebook analyst.

Therefore, TrendForce says, major brands will not give up their tablet product lines, even at the expense of downsizing their entry-level product ranges.

As Google continues with its tablet business ambitions and Huawei expands fast in this segment, this joint growth momentum will remain key to the overall performance of the tablet market, it notes.

For 2019, TrendForce forecasts global tablet shipments at 139.6 million units, a year-on-year decline of 4%.

The market research firm says amid the overall decline of tablet sales worldwide, brands tend to offer lower prices to retain customers, and invest less in new tablet development.

In contrast, Huawei appears to be rather positive in developing new mobile devices, both smartphones and tablets, it says.

Huawei's tablet shipments for 2018 are expected to rise by over 30% to more than 14 million units, with a market share of 9.8%. This is 2.6 percentage points up from last year, says TrendForce.

It points out that this will enable Huawei to become the third largest tablet manufacturer this year, surpassing Amazon.

Amazon's growth momentum for tablet grows conservative as the brand shifts some focus to its smart speaker business, says TrendForce. The company expects a fall in its annual tablet shipments for 2018, although it has been adjusting its product portfolio faster and increasing the share of its 8-inch and larger products.

After three years of strong growth, Amazon is expected to record more conservative shipment of 13.4 million units this year, a year-on-year decline of 1%.

Leading tablet maker Apple has revealed its new 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models ahead of the coming holiday sales. However, this launch not long after the release of new iPhones and the premium price tags (25% higher), may prevent the new iPad series from achieving mass market success, TrendForce says.

As a result, TrendForce expects iPad shipments to fall by 2% year-on-year, recording 43 million units for 2018.

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