According to a latest report of IDC, the global tablet market has shrank significantly in the second quarter of this year. The market mentioned here include both pure slates and detachable tablets. Though the sales of detachable tablets is picking up gradually, shipments in 2nd quarter of 2016 (ending June) has gone down by 12.3 percent amounting to 38.7 million when compared to 44.1 million in Q2 2015, as per the report of IDC.
“The market has spoken as consumers and enterprises seek more productive form factors and operating systems – it’s the reason we’re seeing continued growth in detachables,” Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers, was quoted as saying by an IDC press release.
Regarding the market share, Apple is still the leader with about 28% share selling 10 million units, next comes Samsung with about 16% share selling 6 million units followed by Lenovo at around 7% and Huawei at 6%. When talked about operating system, Android leads in this segment with 65% followed by iOS with 26% and Windows with 9%. Though android is more commonly seen in pure tablets, Windows hold a top spot in hybrids and detachables.
“At present, it’s difficult for Android to compete with iOS or Windows detachable products. However, the next 12 to 18 months will be very interesting as Google launches the next version of Android with better multi-tasking support and as they begin to bring together their two operating systems,” Urbani added.
The data though didn’t come as a surprise. The tablet market has been on the decline for a while now. The primary reason for that is attributed to smartphones. With increasing screen sizes of smartphones, it makes more sense to buy a single smartphone rather than buying both a smartphone and a tablet.