Strategy Analytics has published a new report regarding tablets, that details the performance of these devices over the past year. It’s been a bad, bad year for tablets, as the global slate market fell 8% in 2015.
This means that the segment saw the worst year on year performance ever. Shipments fell 11%, reaching 69.9 million units in Q4 alone and the 8% drop for the whole year brought the total to 224.3 million units. 2 in 1 models and Windows slates continued to perform reasonably. Apple also suffered from this and last I checked, the iPad lost more than 20% in shipments.
In the meantime, 2 in 1 tablet shipments grew at 379% year on year rate. Windows tablet shipments grew by 59% year on year in 2015. OS-wise, we saw Android dropping 7% and iOS 22% in the same time period. Interestingly Q4 also brought the launch of Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book, followed quickly by Surface clones, at lower prices.
All of these movements boosted Windows. 2016 is expected to continue the same trends from last year, including the ascension of hybrids and Windows models.
