The Apple iPad remains the top dog in the tablet area, in spite of losing some serious sales over the past two years. Meanwhile, the iPad Pro also took the top spot among touch detachables over the past holiday season. The trend continued to repeat in Q1, Q2 and Q3 this year and has been confirmed by a recent J.D. Power 2016 US Tablet study.
That study covers the customer’s satisfaction regarding a variety of products. Well, the iPad won this survey for the past 4 quarters and was also dominant in the tablet sales area. Even today everyone must admit that it was Apple that made tablets cool, with the first iPad back in 2010. Various attempts at launching such products failed and then Apple finally found the ideal format.
With iOS apps to help, a solid design and battery, it was clear that the product would be a hit. The last years brought an uprise among detachables, but even that segment is covered by Apple with the iPad Pro models and accessories. Microsoft has also found success within the Surface range, but still not on an iPad level. Apple and Samsung continue to dominate the slate market globally, but the whole segment has been stagnating seriously over the past year.
Even with detachables innovating, the market has already been saturated with such portable devices and basically everyone has one or two tablets laying around the house. And the upgrade cycles are much longer here than for smartphones. Maybe a switch to curved OLEDs could turn up the heat.
