14 DAY TRIAL // Figures provided by IDC for the second quarter of 2017 reveal that the tablet market continued its decline, with a drop of no less than 3.4 percent year over year and total shipments of 37.9 million.
The traditional form factor is rapidly losing ground, and with more and more companies making the switch to detachables, also known as 2-in-1 devices, the decline is likely to continue in the coming quarters.
Microsoft pioneered the 2-in-1 market in 2012 when it introduced the Surface RT, and after several generations that proved to be substantially more successful, other companies, including Apple, decided to enhance their tablets with features that transform them into detachable devices.
Apple is expanding the iPad Pro lineup with every generation and earlier this year introduced a new 10.5-inch model that competes against Microsoft’s Surface Pro lineup, while Samsung is also improving its tablet portfolio with 2-in-1 devices featuring keyboards and running Windows 10.
Small recovery next quarter in the 2-in-1 market
IDC says the decline of the tablet market is likely to experience a slight recovery the next quarter, partially thanks to Apple and Microsoft who both launched new models towards the end of the second quarter.
"There's been a resetting of expectations for detachables as competing convertible notebooks offered a convincing and familiar computing experience for many," said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers.
"To date, the 2-in-1 market was bifurcated as Apple and Microsoft led with detachables while the PC vendors led with convertibles. Though that is slowly changing as smartphone vendors and traditional PC vendors begin to offer compelling alternatives, the pace has been rather slow as Surface and iPad Pro still dominate shelf space and mindshare."
Apple itself remains the number one tablet manufacturer with 11.4 million units sold in the second quarter of 2017 and 30.1 percent market share, while Samsung is the runner-up with 6 million units sold and 15.8 percent market share.
As far as detachables are concerned, Microsoft and Apple are dominating the market, but companies like Samsung and Huawei are growing up at a fast pace as well. Huawei, for instance, secured 8 percent of the market the last quarter, up from 5.3 percent the same quarter a year before with a 47.1 percent year-over-year growth.