This is saddening news but the tablet market is on the path to dying out. According to figures provided by the IDC, for the second quarter of 2017 have revealed that the tablet market continued to decline, with a drop of no less than 3.4 per cent year over year and total shipments of 37.9 million.
The traditional form factor it seems is rapidly loosing ground. With more and more company switching to detachables, hybrid, or 2-in-1 devices, the decline is likely to continue in the coming months.
Microsoft had entered the 2-in-1 market in 2012 when they introduced the Surface RT which proved to be successful after several generations. Looking at this, other companies, including Apple decided to enhance their tablets with features that transform them into detachable devices.
Apple is expanding the iPad Pro lineup with every generation and earlier this year introduced a new 10.5-inch model which competes against Microsoft’s Surface Pro lineup, while Samsung is also improving its tablet portfolio with 2-in-1 devices featuring keyboards and running Windows 10.
IDC has stated that the decline of the tablet market is likely to experience a slight recovery the next quarter, partially thanks to Apple and Microsoft who launched the new models towards the end of the second quarter.
"There's been a resetting of expectations for detachables as competing convertible notebooks offered a convincing and familiar computing experience for many," said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers.
"To date, the 2-in-1 market was bifurcated as Apple and Microsoft led with detachables while the PC vendors led with convertibles. Though that is slowly changing as smartphone vendors and traditional PC vendors begin to offer compelling alternatives, the pace has been rather slow as Surface and iPad Pro still dominate shelf space and mindshare."
Apple itself as of now is the top tablet manufacturer with over 11.4 million units sold in the second quarter of 2017 and 30.1 per cent market share, while Samsung is the runner-up with 6 million unit sold and 15.8 per cent market share.
In terms of detachables, Microsoft and Apple are dominating the market, but companies like Samsung and Huawei are growing up at a fast pace as well.
