Market expected to slow to 7.2 percent year-on-year growth this year, with iPads expected to see first year of decline.
According to IDC, the worldwide tablet market is expected to slow significantly in 2014 to achieve a year-on-year growth of just 7.2 percent compared to 52.5 percent last year, with the slowing market expected to be affected by 2014 being the first full year of decline in Apple iPad shipments.
While this may seem promising to those who see tablets as bad news for printing, the slowing market is not an indication of less tablets in use, with the market merely affected by lengthening device lifecycles as people keep their devices for three or four years, resembling PC ownership patterns rather than that of smartphones.
Ryan Reith, Program Director with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers, explained: “The tablet market continues to be impacted by a few major trends happening in relevant markets. In the early stages of the tablet market, device lifecycles were expected to resemble those of smartphones, with replacement occurring every two to three years. What has played out instead is that many tablet owners are holding onto their devices for more than three years, and in some instances more than four years. We believe the two major drivers for longer than expected tablet lifecycles are legacy software support for older products, especially within iOS, and the increased use of smartphones for a variety of computing tasks.”
In terms of operating system, Android lead the market in 2014 with a 67.7 percent market share and 159.5 million units shipped, followed by iOS with a 27.5 percent share and 64.9 million units shipped. By 2018, year-on-year growth of the overall tablet market is expected to fall to 3.8 percent, although shipment volumes are expected to increase to 285.9 million units compared to 2014’s 235.7 million.
IDC also noted that “significant advancements” have been seen in the “2-in-1” or detachable product category, with devices becoming thinner, prices lowering and more models released. However, shipments of such devices are only expected to reach 8.7 million units in 2014 – just four percent of the total tablet market – largely due to “consumer hesitancy around the Windows 8 platform” which they are built upon.
Looking ahead, IDC expects that overall tablet shipments could be impacted by “the industry reaction to Windows 10; what Google does in this space with Android and Chrome OS; and Apple’s rumoured product line expansion”; but added that “it seems clear that consumers can be expected to hold onto tablets longer than smartphones”.