The worldwide tablet market will continue to fall this year, down a record 11.5 percent and with shipments expected at 183.4 million units, according to the latest study from the IDC. The market should rebound in 2018 and grow through 2020, with shipments reaching 194.2 million tablets as detachable tablets continue to steal share from traditional PCs.
Android, the OS leader, will see its market share slipping this year to 66.2 percent from 67.4 percent in 2015. The share is expected to dip further in 2020 to 57.8 percent. Windows, with a market share of 8.6 percent in 2015, will make the most progress, growing to 11.3 percent this year and then jumping to 19.3 percent in 2020. iOS’s market share is expected a bit lower this year at 22.4 percent from 23.9 percent the year earlier. It will recover somewhat, reaching 22.9 percent in 2020.
With the shift towards detachable tablets, IDC expects small tablets to loss share to larger devices. In 2016, 55 percent of all tablets will be 9 inches or smaller. By 2020, however, this share is forecast to drop to 40 percent. Slate tablets will continue to account for most shipments until 2020. In 2016, 85 percent of all tablets shipped will be slates and this will decrease to 68 percent by 2020. Most of these will be destined for emerging markets where consumers seek out any low cost computing device.
