It’s a well known fact that the iPhone 6 Plus is pretty much a tablet killer, especially one with a 7 inch screen. This situation is more pronounced for 6 inch phablets, that are killing the sales of smaller slates. There are also figures to support this trend.
Tablet shipments are also being pushed down by the resurging notebooks and their decline is expected to continue well into 2015, according to market experts. Many of the vendors of $199 notebooks will release new models in the fourth quarter and tablet vendors are worried about that. 7 inch display slates used to stand for 70% of the overall tablet market sales, but no longer, as the percentage is now below 60%.
The impact of the large size phones is felt on the overall tablet segment as well. Chromebooks are also cutting into the tablet sales and the likes of HP, Acer, ASSU and Toshiba are already planning releases in the $199 to $249 price range with Windows, to rival the Chromebooks. NPD DisplaySearch expects global tablet shipments to reach 254 million units this year, a 2% increase on year, but lower by 14% compared to the previous forecast.
