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THE TABLET market continues its decline, with global shipments falling by double digits for the first time in 2015, reaching a 12.2 percent decline year on year.
The market figures from TrendForce paint a picture of a global tablet market experiencing increasing contraction. This decline can be attributed to the saturation of the tablet market, the long life cycles of tablets themselves and the abundance of substitute devices.
In 2015, tablets were challenged on many fronts, by large and small devices, from smartphones sized 5 inches and above to 2-in-1 PCs. With so many different competing form factors catering to ever more specific needs, the demand for tablets diminished as a result.
Apple’s market share fell under 30 percent, from 33 percent in 2014 to 29.4 percent in 2015. Samsung leveraged its new tablets with OLED displays to hang on to its share.
Despite the decline, Apple retained its title of top tablet brand worldwide in 2015, though iPad shipments fell by as much as 22 percent year on year, from 63.4 million units in 2014 to 49.6 million in 2015. This decline was steeper than the market average, because Apple’s lead in tablet shipments meant it was more vulnerable to the impacts of a slowing global economy and weak tablet demand.
Based on TrendForce’s analysis, Apple’s total shipments for 2016 would drop to under 40 million units if the company decided not to release new models of iPad mini this year and continued with selling the existing models of the series.
Meanwhile, Samsung, at number 2 place in the tablet market, saw its tablet shipments fall 18 percent annually to 33.5 million units. Its market share fell by just 1.5 percent over the year to 19.9 percent.
Samsung was able to retain its portion of the tablet market by making major changes to the product lines, including adjustments in specs and sizes. Furthermore, Samsung used its advantage in manufacturing small-size OLED panels and released several new tablets featuring this display technology.