According to the latest report by IDC, tablet shipments will see a major decline in 2014, mainly because of the increase in demand for phablets.
IDC report states that tablet sales will see a growth of just 12.1 percent in 2014 after considerable growth of 51.8 percent in 2013. This is due to the large sceen smartphones or phablets, which have better cameras than tablets and are easier to carry around. IDC blames slow tablet upgrades by consumers for the decline.
Tom Mainelli, program vice president of devices and displays at IDC said, “The rise of phablets — smartphones with 5.5-inch and larger screens — are causing many people to second-guess tablet purchases as the larger screens on these phones are often adequate for tasks once reserved for tablets.”
In the last one year IDC says that the phablet shipments has doubled from 4.3 percent in the Q1 of 2013 to 10.5 percent in Q1 of 2014, representing 30.1 million units being shipped from manufacturers. IDC says that the tablet sales may start looking up once tablet makers shift their focus back towards large-screen devices like Microsoft’s 2-in-1 12-inch Surface Pro 3.
“The shift back toward larger screens will mark a welcome sea change for most vendors as the average selling price for these devices will remain roughly 50 percent higher than the average sub-8-inch device,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research analyst for IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker. “Microsoft is also expected to benefit from this shift as the share for Windows-based devices is expected to double between now and 2018.”
Source: IDC