IDC: Tablet Growth "Hits the Breaks"

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IDC scales back its 5-year tablet forecast following the global shipment declines of Q4 2014-- the analyst expects "low but positive" 2015 results with shipments reaching 234.5 million units with 2.1% growth.

IDC forecast tablets

"Despite the growing popularity of phablets, there still remains a portion of the market that wants to use a larger device so they can tailor their experience to the appropriate screen size," the analyst says. "Meanwhile, an increasing number of vendors behind small tablets are reducing prices and adopting features like voice calling to entice consumers to purchase their products over competing phablets, making the dynamics of phablets vs voice-capable tablets an interesting one to watch."

In the platform rankings Android remains on top with 67.4% 2015 market share and shipments reaching 158.1 million units. On the other hand iOS is described as "the weakest link," with declines in both 2015 shipments (from 63.4m units to 60.1m) and market share (from 27.6% to 25.56%), while Microsoft slowly but surely gains a foothold in the commercial sector.

"Microsoft is doing a lot of good things right now and we believe the launch of Windows 10 later this year will not only have a significant impact on Microsoft's share of the market, but on the industry as a whole," IDC remarks. "There is an appetite for a platform that can provide a productivity experience that remains consistent across multiple form factors and device types, and we believe Microsoft is well positioned to capture some of that demand."

Go IDC WW Quarterly Tablet tracker March 2015