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...
TMT Market Research and Analysis