Tablet shipments hit 49.3 units in Q2 2014. While this represents an 11% increase over the same quarter a year ago, it is also a 1.5% sequential drop. Market research firm IDC expects that the tablet market will continue to grow but certainly not at the pace seen in past quarters. Factors impacting that growth include consumer appetite for larger-screened smartphones and longer ownership cycles than seen with smartphones.
“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 seeing its market share fall below 30% for the quarter, Apple remains the tablet market leader with shipments of 13.3 million units. Samsung held on to second place but also saw its market share drop, albeit less. Lenovo jumped into third place with shipments growing nearly 65% year-over-year. But it remains a distant third to Samsung at this point. ASUS fell to fourth place as shipments fell 36.4% over the same quarter a year ago. Acer held down fifth place.
Source : IDC