Worldwide tablet shipments registered their first ever year-on-year decline in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to a report from IDC. Overall shipments for tablets and 2-in-1 devices reached 76.1 million in the three months to December, said IDC, down 3.2 percent on the 78.6 million tablets sold in the year-earlier quarter. An earlier report from Strategy Analytics said tablets had registered a modest 1 percent year-on-year growth in the same quarter. Both reports suggest the market is slowing considerably due to the increasing popularity of phablet-sized smartphones and a top-heavy reliance on the two leaders, Apple and Samsung.
Nearly all major tablet manufacturers posted disappointing results, said IDC. Although Apple shipped 21.4 million iPads in the fourth quarter, with a 28.1 percent market share, sales were still 17.8 percent down on the year-earlier quarter due to what IDC described as “cannibalisation” at the bottom from the iPhone and at the top from the Mac.
Samsung, meanwhile, sold 11 million tablets, around 18.4 percent lower than its Q4 2013 result. However, IDC said Samsung's Galaxy Tab 4 series has been well received and its recent announcement that it will focus on mid-to-high tier tablets should help the bottom line.
Lenovo was the only company to post stronger fourth quarter results, shipping 3.7 million units, a 9.1 percent year-on-year rise. Asus retained its fourth position even though sales tumbled 24.9 percent to 3.0 million units sold. Fifth-placed Amazon recorded the steepest year-on-year decline, with Kindle Fire tablets plummeting nearly 70 percent to 1.7 million units sold.
