The worldwide tablet grew 11.0% year over year in the second quarter of 2014 (2Q14) with shipments reaching 49.3 million units according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker. Although shipments declined sequentially from 1Q14 by -1.5%, IDC believes the market will experience positive but slower growth in 2014 compared to the previous year.
“As we indicated last quarter, the market is still being impacted by the rise of large-screen smartphones and longer than anticipated ownership cycles,” said Jean Philippe Bouchard, IDC Research Director for Tablets. “We can also attribute the market deceleration to slow commercial adoption of tablets. Despite this trend, we believe that stronger commercial demand for tablets in the second half of 2014 will help the market grow and that we will see more enterprise-specific offerings, as illustrated by the Apple and IBM partnership, come to market.”
Despite declining shipments of its iPad product line, Apple managed to maintain its lead in the worldwide tablet market, shipping 13.3 million units in the second quarter. Following a strong first quarter, Samsung struggled to maintain its momentum and saw its market share slip to 17.2% in the second quarter. Lenovo continued to climb the rankings ladder, surpassing ASUS and moving into the third spot in the tablet market, shipping 2.4 million units and grabbing 4.9% markets share. The top 5 was rounded out by ASUS and Acer, with 4.6% and 2.0% share, respectively. Share outside the top 5 grew to an all time high as more and more vendors have made inroads in the tablet space. By now most traditional PC and phone vendors have at least one tablet model in the market, and strategies to move bundled devices and promotional offerings have slowly gained momentum.
“Until recently, Apple, and to a lesser extent Samsung, have been sitting at the top of the market, minimally impacted by the progress from competitors,” said Jitesh Ubrani, Research Analyst, Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker. “Now we are seeing growth amongst the smaller vendors and a leveling of shares across more vendors as the market enters a new phase.”
Top Five Tablet Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, Second Quarter 2014 (Preliminary Results, Shipments in millions)
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker, July 24, 2014
Note: Total tablet market includes slate tablets plus 2-in-1 tablets. References to “tablets” in this release include both slate tablets and 2-in-1 devices.
IDC Tracker products provide accurate and timely market size, vendor share, and forecasts for hundreds of technology markets from more than 100 countries around the globe. Using proprietary tools and research processes, IDC’s Trackers are updated on a semiannual, quarterly, and monthly basis. Tracker results are delivered to clients in user-friendly excel deliverables and on-line query tools. The IDC Tracker Charts app allows users to view data charts from the most recent IDC Tracker products on their iPhone and iPad.
Source: International Data Corporation
Of course, “Other” is no-name crap sold mostly in China. Remove that from the list, and you’ll see that Apple has a 48% of “Tablets People Aren’t Embarrassed to be Seen in Public With”.
——RM
And this group of companies in “other” each sold less than a million tablets, so there are well over 22 such losers, including Amazon and Microsoft.
Slice and dice the numbers to fit your narrative if you must, but all those junk tablets are still tablets and they represent sales the Apple did not make. Remember, China represents the majority of Apple’s growth prospects in tablets and phones since the US and Europe are already much more saturated.
Apple should be rightly proud of its market share in tablets, as it does indeed offer the best value in hardware and ecosystem. Nevertheless, if Apple gets complacent, then competitors like these will begin to erode Apple’s sales. In the short term, of course Apple isn’t worried, but Cook had better have some team at Apple that is taking the pulse of the rapidly growing Chinese market. Hubris should not be part of a winning long-term strategy.
Confuseus says Chinese Shit really is Chinese Shit.
@Mike
“Slice and dice the numbers to fit your narrative if you must, but all those junk tablets are still tablets and they represent sales the Apple did not make.”
But this line of thinking is completely wrong. People who are buying sub $99 “white-box” tablets (the bulk of the “Others” category) have no interest in spending more than twice that for name-brand tablets. That’s why these devices should be in a separate category. If IDC actually listed the vendors of these devices instead of lumping them into “Others”, it would ruin the “Apple is bleeding tablet marketshare” narrative.
So… what then? Apple should release cheap plastic $50 crap tablets too? What exactly do you think they’re doing wrong?
Or are you just being contrarian, like you always are?
——RM
Suspect people are waiting for the next version with Touch ID like the iPhone 5S. Then you’ll see sales stop declining.
Gee, yesterday the iPad was “struggling.”
Apple’s current iPad business is healthier than most Fortune 500 companies and yet these idiots are screaming Apple’s iPad business is in deep trouble. It’s as though analysts only think of a company in terms of quarter to quarter and they never see the long-term picture of a company. They never take current economic conditions into consideration, either. They think every company can pound out increased sales every quarter no matter what. You can tell these people never ran any sort of business on their own.