IDC: Tablet sales down in 4Q2014, up in 2014 full year

This would be a good news from PC makers. For the first time since the release of Apple’s iPad, the worldwide tablet shipments registered a YoY decline in sales for the fourth quarter of FY2014. When full year sales is taken into account, the shipment of tablets and 2-in-1 devices increase by 4.4% to 229.6 million units. With respect to market share, Apple is still leading with 28.1% marketshare in 4Q14, down from 33.1%. Samsung is the only other vendor with double digit market share. Samsung shipped 11 million devices and the marketshare went down from 17.2% of 14.5%. Lenovo grabbed third place from Amazon, thanks to 3.7 million shipments, registering 4.8% of marketshare (up from 4.3%) Lenovo is the only maker among top 5 to register a positive growth in last quarter. ASUS took the fourth spot with 4% marketshare while Amazon lost massive marketshare as their shipments declined from 5.8 million to just 1.7 million, registering just 2.3% marketshare.

“Despite an apparent slow-down of the market, we maintain our forecast about tablet growth in 2015”

“The tablet market is still very top heavy in the sense that it relies mostly on Apple and Samsung to carry the market forward each year,” said Jitesh Ubrani, Senior Research Analyst, Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker. “Although Apple expanded its iPad lineup by keeping around older models and offering a lower entry price point of $249, it still wasn’t enough to spur iPad sales given the excitement around the launch of the new iPhones. Meanwhile, Samsung’s struggles continued as low-cost vendors are quickly proving that mid- to high-priced Android tablets simply aren’t cut out for today’s tablet market.”

“Despite an apparent slow-down of the market, we maintain our forecast about tablet growth in 2015,” said Jean Philippe Bouchard, Research Director, Tablets. “Microsoft’s new OS, a general shift towards larger screen form factor and productivity focused solutions, and technology innovations such as gesture interface that could be introduced in tablets will help the market maintain positive growth in 2015.”

Top Five Tablet Vendors, Shipments, Market Share, and Growth, Fourth Quarter 2014
(Preliminary Results, Shipments in millions)

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker, February 2, 2015

Coming to full year’s shipments, Apple maintained the lead at the top with 27.6% marketshare, down from 33.8%. Samsung stayed in second place and similar to 4Q14, Samsung is the only other vendor to register a double digit marketshare. Though Samsung managed to register positive growth in number of unit shipping in 2014, their marketshare fell from 18.1% to 17.5%. ASUS took the third sport with 5% marketshare (down from 5.6%). Lenovo took the fourth spot, thanks to a 43.% increase in shipments in 2014. Lenovo managed to increase market share to 4.9% from 3.5% while Amazon rounded off the top five list with 1.4% marketshare, down from 4.4% share.

Top Five Tablet Vendors, Shipments, Market Share, and Growth, Calendar Year 2014
(Preliminary Results, Shipments in millions)

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker, February 2, 2015

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