Hot tablet PC market began to cool down

Tencent Technology News May 2 news, market research firm IDC released a report on Thursday said that with the once-hot tablet PC market began to cool down, global shipments of tablet PCs in 2014 the overall growth rate will slow down. IDC believes that large-screen mobile phone and tablet upgrade cycle will affect the Tablet PC shipments.

IDC's report shows that the first quarter of this year, the global total shipments of tablets 54,040,000, an increase of 3.9% over the 48.3 million a year earlier. Apple is still the king of the tablet PC market, shipments reached 16.4 million, accounting for 32.5% of the market share. However, the first-quarter shipments of tablets fell 16.1% from 19.5 million units in the same period of last year, with a market share of 40.2%. Market analysts believe that as Apple will introduce the big screen iPhone 6, the company's share of the tablet PC market may decline further.

Samsung followed the shipments of tablet PCs in the first quarter to 11.2 million units, up 32.0% from 8.5 million units in the same period of last year and increasing its market share from 17.5% to 22.3%. Asus came third, with 2.5 million tablet shipments in the first quarter, down 2.8% from 2.6 million in the same period a year earlier, and its market share slipped from 5.4% to 5.0%. Lenovo ranked fourth, with shipments of 2.1 million tablets in the first quarter, up 224.3% from 600,000 in the same period a year earlier, and its market share rose to 4.1% from 1.3%. Amazon ranked fifth with shipments of 1 million tablets in the first quarter, down 47.1% from 1.8 million in the same period a year earlier, and its market share slipped from 3.7% to 1.9%.

IDC noted that the Android operating system currently accounts for nearly two-thirds of the Tablet OS's operating system. Tom Mainelli, vice president of Devices and Display at IDC, said: "The rise of large-screen smartphones and the prolonged upgrade of tablets are the main reasons behind weaker-than-expected tablet sales in the first quarter of 2011. In addition, Business demand growth is not strong enough to offset the slowdown in consumer demand. "

Stephen Monteros, vice president of business development and strategic solutions at education market solutions provider SIGMAnet, said: "As more companies replace laptops with 2-in-1 tablets, we expect 10-inch tablets with keyboards Computers will drive sales of tablets this year, and in the retail, education and healthcare sectors, we see that the share of laptops is being replaced by tablets. "

Despite this growth in the corporate arena, IDC's Manley believes that tablet growth in the business sector will not be able to withstand the slowdown in consumer shipments. (Ming Hin)