Apple shipped 12.6 million iPads in Q1 2015, a far cry from the 16.4 million units it shipped over a similar period last year. Things were not any better at Samsung as the Korean giant only managed to ship 8.8 million tablets down from the 12.8 million units it shipped in Q1 2014. The 23% and 31% decline respectively by the two biggest smartphone and tablets manufacturers in the world is an acknowledged sign of things to come as customers purchase big screen smartphones (phablets?) hence seeing no need for tablets.
According to a new report by Strategy Analytics, it is not all dark and gloomy for everyone though. Huawei, LG, small players like TCL (the company behind Alcatel-branded mobile devices) and other white box tablet manufacturers gained marketshare as they increased their shipments. Huawei had a massive growth year on year (147%) with its share of the tablet market rising from a paltry 0.9% to a negligible 2.5%.
See the figures below:
While Q1 wasn’t particularly good, SA believes that Apple’s new campaign to entice customers into buying its iPads may payoff. We are not sure about that though we haven’t reached the point where tablets can be said to be on their deathbed. The death of the PC has been predicted for quite some time that it is becoming the longest-running joke in the industry. Samsung on the other hand is yet to announce any tablets for its high end customer base (Galaxy Tab S) preferring instead to go with the favourably priced Galaxy Tab A series. There are rumours that Apple may even launch a larger iPad model, the iPad Pro, to go beyond targeting individual users and tap into the enterprise world with more use cases.