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Tired tablets don't tickle the imagination, so sales fall again

Market fragmenting as Apple and Samsung lose dominance, say new IDC numbers

Box-counter IDC's latest Quarterly tablet tracker has more bad news for fondleslab fans: sales are down and the market is fragmenting.

The firm's preliminary data for 2015's second quarter finds 44.7 million fondleslabs and typoslabs shipped, down seven per cent on 2014's shipments. Q2's never a cracker – it contains no major holiday, back-to-school buying season and seldom features a big product launch – but that's still a decent dip.

IDC reckons lack of innovation and product refresh is partly to blame for the stalled market, along with the rise of phablets. Windows 10 and iOS 9 aren't helping either: Q2's punters knew they could get an upgrade without a new hardware purchase.

Philippe Bouchard, IDC's tablets research director, reckons the big move in the market is the emergence of niche players because by targeting smaller sub-markets they're eroding the dominance of Apple and Samsung. Where that pair had 45 per cent of the Q1 market, Q2 saw them dip to 41 per cent. Huawei's also on the move, cracking the top five vendors for the first time.

Here's the tale of the tape.

Top Five Worldwide Tablet Vendors - Preliminary Results for the Second Quarter of 2015 (Shipments in millions)

Vendor

2Q15 Unit Shipments

2Q15 Market Share

2Q14 Unit Shipments

2Q14 Market Share

Year-Over-Year Growth

1. Apple

10.9

24.5%

13.3

27.7%

-17.9%

2. Samsung

7.6

17.0%

8.6

18.0%

-12.0%

3. Lenovo

2.5

5.7%

2.4

4.9%

6.8%

4. Huawei*

1.6

3.7%

0.8

1.7%

103.6%

4. LG Electronics*

1.6

3.6%

0.5

1.0%

246.4%

Others

20.4

45.6%

22.4

46.7%

-9.3%

Total

44.7

100.0%

48.0

100.0%

-7.0%


Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker, July 29, 2015

IDC's not the only outfit finding falling fondleslab sales: rival analyst outfir Context this week found sales in Europe down 31 per cent. ®

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