14 DAY TRIAL // The tablet market continues its decline, and new statistics published by IDC shows that in the second quarter of the year, the drop reached 13.5 percent to 33 million units.
Detachable tablets also went down, according to the same statistics, while slate tablets accounted for 28.4 million units, again a massive decline of 14.5 percent.
Apple and Huawei are the only two companies that posted growth during the quarter, though their strong performance wasn’t enough to power a potential recovery of the market.
Apple continues to be the leading brand in the tablet market with 11.5 million units, followed by Samsung with just 5 million units. Huawei is third with 3.4 million units.
Massive Samsung drop
IDC says Microsoft’s Always Connected PCs, which bring Windows 10 to ARM processors, has failed to impress and thus the tablet market is still waiting for another catalyst for return to growth.
“The first-generation of Windows 10 on Snapdragon detachables failed to impress as sluggish performance and the limited number of available programs and apps prevented the first few products in the category from achieving mass market success,” said Lauren Guenveur, senior research analyst for IDC's Tablet team.
“However, with Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 850 processor, specifically designed for Always Connected PCs, as well as new tools from Microsoft to bring 64-bit apps to the Always Connected platform, we believe there is a promising future for this line of products.”
Samsung recorded a massive decline during the quarter, as its drop reached 16.1 percent year-over-year. Samsung currently has a 15.6 percent market share, well behind rival Apple which is leading the market with 29.9 percent.
Apple is also projected to release new iPad models this year, including a Pro model that would feature an edge-to-edge screen design similar to the one of the iPhone X, as well as Face ID facial recognition.