While tablets are pretty ubiquitous at this point in time, it seems that recent numbers released by the IDC has revealed that the tablet market is starting to slow down rather drastically, telling a completely different story from a few years ago when many had expected tablets to become possible PC replacements.
According to the IDC, tablets have seen a 7.2% year-on-year growth rate for 2014, which is still in the positive, but compared to 2013, it definitely pales in comparison. Last year’s figures had a 52.5% year-on-year growth, so safe to say the 7.2% is nowhere near the speed or rate compared to last year, thus indicating that the market for tablets is indeed starting to slow.
However this doesn’t mean tablets are doomed, but rather it reflects a more accurate representation of a tablet’s lifecycle. Unlike smartphones, tablets are less likely to be upgraded with every new model that is released, but early predictions had assumed that tablets would see the same lifecycle as smartphones.
According to IDC executive Ryan Reith, “In the early stages of the tablet market, device lifecycles were expected to resemble those of smartphones, with replacement occurring every 2-3 years. What has played out instead is that many tablet owners are holding onto their devices for more than 3 years and in some instances more than 4 years.”
This seems to be in line with an investors note released by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo who had similarly predicted that sales of Apple’s iPad is expected to see a massive drop by as much as 40% in Q1 2015. That being said, sales tend to slow/stabilize as a market begins to mature so perhaps that is what we are looking at here, but what do you guys think? Is there anything companies can do to help boost the growth of the tablet market?
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