Digital Lifescapes

The worldwide media tablet market contracted in the first quarter of 2017 (1Q17) with total shipments of 36.2 million -- that's a year-over-year decline of 8.5 percent, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). The first quarter contraction marks the tenth straight quarter that tablets have experienced a decline over the same quarter a year earlier, with the previous five quarters recording double-digit drops. Meanwhile, the market for Google Chromebooks continues to rise, and phablets continue to gain market share. Media Tablet Market Development The tablet market is comprised of two different product categories. Devices offering a keyboard, which IDC refers to as detachable tablets, continue to grow. The other product category is slate tablets (those lacking this keyboard option), which saw shipments peak in 2014 and is now in a steep decline. "As far as most are aware, the tablet market was created in 2010 with the launch of the o...

Global consumer electronics vendors experienced a challenging environment in 2016, due to the shift in product preferences of savvy buyers. With the exception of Chromebooks, the personal computing category has not had the market demand or device shipments that could sustain the vendors. Case in point; consumer spending during the holiday quarter of 2016 was clearly not aimed at consuming media tablets, as the market continued its downturn. The fourth quarter of 2016 (4Q16) marked the ninth consecutive quarter that tablet shipments have declined. Media Tablet Market Development Vendors shipped 52.9 million tablets in the fourth quarter, which was a decline of 20.1 percent from the same quarter one year ago, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC) . Similarly, shipments of 174.8 million units for the full year 2016 were down 15.6 percent compared to 2015 -- marking the second straight year of declining shipments of media tablets...

Consumer electronics product lifecycle management is often challenging for most vendors, but it's particularly problematic when customer needs and wants are constantly changing. Such is the case with media tablet users around the globe. As the market matured, distinct customer use case segments evolved. Worldwide media tablet shipments, inclusive of slates and detachables, reached 38.7 million in the second quarter of 2016 (2Q16) according to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Growth continues to decline with the market receding 12.3 percent year-over-year as vendors begin to refocus their product lines and consumers wait on purchases. An overwhelming majority of tablets shipped this past quarter were Google Android-based systems (65 percent) followed by Apple iOS, which captured 26 percent, and Microsoft Windows for the remaining share. Media Tablet Market Development Segments Though this trend has been constant for years there are earl...

Seasonality combined with disinterested customers led to an annual decline of 14.7 percent in worldwide tablet shipments during the first quarter of 2016 (1Q16). Global shipments of tablets reached 39.6 million, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Slate tablets continued their decline while still accounting for 87.6 percent of all shipments. More importantly, the slate tablet segment has become synonymous with prices at the low-end of the market. While this may bode well for vendors like Amazon that rely on hardware sales to increase their overall ecosystem size, it has not helped other leading vendors who rely solely on greater margins for hardware sales. Ongoing Gains for Detachable Tablets Meanwhile, detachables experienced triple-digit year-over-year growth on shipments of more than 4.9 million units, an all-time high in the first quarter of a calendar year. But that performance won't result in a celebration. Many challenges rem...

The worldwide media tablet market recorded lower shipments for the fourth straight quarter, with 48.7 million units shipped in 3Q15, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Despite early signs of a slight improvement, shipments were actually down -12.6 percent year-over-year. IDC estimated the global installed base of tablets to stand at 581.9 million at the end of 2014, which was up 36 percent from 2013. With mature markets like North America, Western Europe, and Asia-Pacific well past 100 million active tablets per region, the opportunities for new growth are fewer. "We continue to get feedback that tablet users are holding onto devices upwards of four years," said Ryan Reith, program director at IDC . IDC believes the traditional media tablet still has a place in personal computing. However, as the smartphone installed base continues to grow and as phablets become more capable, the need for smaller form-factor slate tablets is le...