Tablet Sales Drops For 12 Consecutive Quarters

The emergence of large screen high-end smartphones, super-portable laptops and 2 in 1 tablet PC’s seem to have affected the appeal for tablets. In the third quarter of 2017, tablet shipments declined by 5.4% year-over-year (YoY) which made it the 12th consecutive quarter of declining shipments for the sector. In Q3 2016, 42.3 million units were shipped but for Q3 2017, only 40 million units were shipped.

Apple, the top provider of tablets globally leads the pack with 10.3 million iPad tablets shipped in the third quarter and its market share in the industry increased from 21.9% to 25.8%. Samsung comes second with 6 million units (7.9% decline from Q3 2016) relying mostly on its lower-priced Tab A and Tab E models. The manufacturer still has 15% of the tablet market share. In the third, fourth and fifth places are Amazon, Huawei, and Lenovo respectively. While Amazon shipped 4.4 million tabs, Huawei and Lenovo shipped 3 million tablets each. In terms of market share, Amazon now boasts of 10.1% while Huawei and Lenovo claim 7.5% and 7.4% respectively.

Analysts are now predicting that with the consistent drop in tablet sales, the market will soon bottom out. As of now, some manufacturers have even stylishly discontinued some of its tablet series. However, if speculations are true, Apple will probably continue to grow its tablet shipments next year as it plans to include the TrueDepth Camera and Face ID feature in its 2018 iPad Pro tablets. This should attract some users to the product especially if it comes with a lower price tag compared to iPhone X which also uses the feature.