European Reseller

Worldwide Tablet Growth slows in the Years Ahead

After the first year-over-year decline in worldwide tablet shipments in the fourth quarter, the International Data Corporation (IDC) has scaled back its five year forecast for the product category. Worldwide shipments are expected to reach 234.5 million units, a modest year-over-year increase of 2.1% from five years ago. Although the outlook has been tempered, IDC still expects low but positive growth for the market in the years to come as demand in the commercial sector increases, and as Microsoft slowly gains a foothold.

With the growing popularity of phablets, which were forecast in September by IDC, that worldwide phablet shipments, described as smart-phones with screen sizes from 5.5 to less than 7 inches will reach 175 million units worldwide, passing the portable PCs expected to ship during the same period some 170 million.

There still remains a portion of the market that wants to use a tablet but with the ability to utilise as a voice devise, this has lead to, an increasing number of vendors producing small tablets and are reducing prices and adopting features like voice calling to entice consumers to purchase their products over competing phablets, making the dynamics of phablets vs voice-capable tablets an interesting one to watch. We ( European Reseller ) see a move towards data devises, enabling the plethora of VOIP products. Basi9cally we will become Data Junkies.

In terms of platforms, IDC sees that Android will remain the leader, with close to two-thirds of the market over the course of the forecast. Once-upon-a-time-leader iOS is likely the weakest link as IDC expects its volume share of the market to decline, reaching levels below that of the past three years. Windows, despite modest adoption to date, is expected to gain significant share over the course of the forecast, growing from 5.1% to 14.1% in years to come.

"Microsoft is doing a lot of good things right now and we believe the launch of Windows 10 later this year will not only have a significant impact on Microsoft's share of the market, but on the industry as a whole," said Jean Philippe Bouchard, Research Director, Tablets. "There is an appetite for a platform that can provide a productivity experience that remains consistent across multiple form factors and device types, and we believe Microsoft is well positioned to capture some of that demand."

Worldwide Tablet plus 2-in-1 Shipments, Market Share, Year-Over-Year Growth by Operating System, (Shipments in millions)