Apple Continues To Rule The Ever-Shrinking Tablet Market

The rise of oversized smartphones also known as phablets, a lack of innovative products, and longer upgrade cycles for consumers, if they upgrade at all are some reasons why tablet market is facing a slump quarter after quarter. Analysts also attributed the dip to the effect of the traditional slow season and the general decline in tablet market demand. Apple’s iPad remains buoyant though.

Market intelligence firm Trendforce reports global tablet shipments for the first quarter of 2017 totaled 31.95 million units, representing a steep drop of 34.5 percent compared with the prior quarter and a year-on-year decline of 9.3%.

“After experiencing a significant retreat in shipments for the first quarter, the tablet market is now focusing on the sales performance of the economically priced 9.7-inch iPad that was released towards the end of this March,” said TrendForce notebook analyst Anita Wang. “At US$329, this model is the lowest priced iPad device that Apple has ever offered. The product is expected to generate sales in this second quarter as its shipments pick up.” Wang also pointed out that most of the consumers’ attention was on the 9.7-inch iPad. Microsoft was supposed to release its Surface Pro 5 in the first quarter, but that has been delayed.

Apple can expect turnaround in second-quarter iPad shipments with an estimated increase of more than 15 percent; Amazon to mass produce a new low-price device in second quarter as well.

Apple topped the tablet vendor ranking for the first quarter by holding on to 27.9 percent of the global market with 8.92 million units of iPad devices shipped. Against the fourth quarter of 2016, iPad shipments fell by 31.8 percent, while year-on-year comparison also shows a drop of 13 percent. Wang pointed out that while the new 9.7-inch iPad hit the market at the end of March, its sales will be helped by its price as tablet demand is still concentrated in the low-price segment.

Samsung’s tablet shipments for the first quarter totaled 6.1 million units, down 23.5 percent from the prior quarter and down 5.7 percent from a year ago. Samsung remained second place in the ranking and controlled 19.1 percent of the global market. Samsung’s strategy going forward will be to keep rolling out new products featuring AMOLED display, such as the 9.7-inch Galaxy Tab S3 that hit the market towards the end of this March. This device was also the only new tablet product that Samsung released in the first quarter. Furthermore, Samsung is actively expanding into the commercial segment of the tablet market by offering 2-in-1 products running on Microsoft Windows and accompanied with stylus pens.

Huawei’s first-quarter tablet shipments came to 2.1 million units, which was a major decrease of 31.1 percent compared with the prior quarter’s shipments and placed the company in the third place of the vendor ranking. Huawei’s tablet strategy for this year will be mainly about increasing profits by selling premium products.

Lenovo took fourth place in the first-quarter ranking with 2.05 million units shipped. This figure translates to a sharp decline of 43.8 percent compared with last year’s fourth quarter. Wang noted that Lenovo starting this year is going to scale back the resources going into its tablet products.

Amazon was fifth in the first-quarter ranking as its tablet shipments plummeted by 42.9 percent versus the prior quarter and came to around 2 million units.

The study however said that Amazon has the best chance of posting annual growth among its competitors because the company’s strategy of selling inexpensive devices will likely succeed again. Amazon will start mass production of a new low-priced 7-inch tablet later this second quarter and the product is expected to make a strong sales performance during the year-end holiday promotions.