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IDC’s Report on Slate Tablets Shows a Decline While Detachable Tablets Climb to New Highs

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Ipad-Pro from Apple
HP attached  Detached Tablet

IDC’s Latest Report on Slate Tablets Shows a Decline While Detachable Tablets Climb to New Highs

Despite the Christmas holiday sales, the worldwide tablet market declined yet again in the fourth quarter, with 65.9 million units shipped, down -13.7% year over year, according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker.

 Worldwide Sales

Total shipments were 206.8 million, down -10.1% from 230.1 million in the prior year. Despite the market's negative trajectory overall, shipments for detachable tablets reached an all-time high of 8.1 million devices.

The transition towards detachable devices appears to be in full swing as pure slate tablets experienced their greatest annual decline to date of -21.1%. On the other hand, detachable tablets more than doubled their shipments since the fourth quarter of last year.

  IPad Pro from Apple

During the 4th quarter there were new detachables launched in the market from all three of the major, the iPad Pro was the clear winner this season as it was the top selling detachable, surpassing notable entries from Microsoft and other PC vendors. It's also important to note that the transition towards detachable tablets has presented positive opportunities for both Apple and Microsoft. However, Google's recent foray into this space has been rather lackluster as the Android platform will require a lot more refinement to achieve any measurable success.

Perhaps the most interesting trend is that prices on slate tablets have not yet hit rock bottom. In the USA Amazon’s $50 (or $42 for bulk shoppers) tablet was the holiday season's surprise hit, getting to the number 3 rank among the worldwide top 5. Rival vendors like Huawei and Lenovo also continued to focus on the low end while also expanding outside their home country China.

"One of the biggest reasons why detachables are growing so fast is because end users are seeing those devices as PC replacements," said Jean Philippe Bouchard, Research Director, Tablets at IDC. "We believe Apple sold just over two million iPad Pros while Microsoft sold around 1.6 million Surface devices, a majority of which were Surface Pro and not the more affordable Surface 3. With these results, it's clear that price is not the most important feature considered when acquiring a detachable – performance is."

HP Detatched

 

Tablet Vendor Highlights

Apple retained its position as market leader during Q4 although the company faced a -24.8% year-over-year decline. With the successful launch of the iPad Pro, the company was able to curb the decline in iPad revenues as its model mix shifted towards higher priced iPads.

Samsung managed to keep its second position in the market though it did decline by -18.1% compared to last year. Samsung is the vendor with the largest portfolio of tablets and managed to spread across multiple price points and screen sizes, a position that will facilitate the transition to detachables.

Lenovo maintained its market share in the last quarter, shipping 3.2 million units for a -13.5% decline over the same period last year. However, the Yoga, MIIX, and Thinkpad brands' combined traditional PC savoir faire should help Lenovo regain market share.

Huawei's focus remains on cellular-connected tablets and international expansion. The company has positioned itself well in the adjacent smartphone market and its popularity is likely to bleed over into the tablet market.