The latest IDC numbers that concern tablets are out, reflecting the current state of the tablet market. It seems that there’s room for improvement, in spite of the fact we just saw new Surface Pro and iPad models launched over the past months.
Sales for products like the Surface Pro and iPad have dropped 3.4% since last year, marking a clear decline for the slate market, as big companies approach the end of the current hardware life cycle. Tablets are known for having a 3-4 year life cycle, so they renew harder than smartphones. The tablet market drop continues since its start in 2014, according to preliminary data from IDC Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker.
Worldwide shipments for slates declined 3.4% year over year in Q2 2017, reaching 37.9 million. Optimistic analysts believe that consumers are waiting in anticipation of product refreshes from Apple and Microsoft. Both firms have already refreshed their tablet lineups though, so right now we can’t really see what consumers are waiting for.
It’s important to note that the iPad did register major growth over the past quarter, selling good numbers on account of the new 10.5 inch iPad Pro and the cheaper $329 iPad that debuted at WWDC. The problem is that Microsoft doesn’t ever reveal Surface numbers, so there’s no way to assess how things are really going.
