Tablet market extends slide as consumer habits shift

The tablet craze from a few years ago showed more signs of fading this year, with most major producers reporting sales declines, market surveys showed Thursday.

IDC reported an 8.5% drop in global tablet shipments to 36.2 million. This was the 10th straight quarterly decline for tablets, IDC said.

A separate survey by Strategy Analytics pegged the decline for the quarter at 10%.

IDC analyst Ryan Reith said the sizzling growth in tablets from 2010 to 2013 following the launch of the first iPad is now history, and that many consumers are finding they can do without tablets, relying instead on smartphone or new slimmer laptop PCs.

"The rate at which the tablet market grew from 2010 to 2013 was unlike many other consumer-oriented device markets we've seen before," Reith said.

"However, it appears for many reasons consumers became less eager to refresh these devices, or in some instances purchase them at all. We continue to believe the leading driver for this was the increased dependency on smartphones, along with rather minimal technology and form factor progression."

IDC said Apple led the market with a 24.6% share in first quarter despite a 13% sales drop.

Samsung sales fell 1.1% but retained the number two spot at 16.5%.

China's Huawei was the only major vendor to show growth – reporting a 31.7% jump, garnering a 7.4% share, after introducing new "detachable" tablets powered by Microsoft Windows, IDC said.

IDC estimated that Amazon, which does not report detailed sales figures, sold 2.2 million tablets for a 6% market share, a drop of 1.8%.

Lenovo held the number five spot with a market share of 5.7% for the Chinese electronics giant, according to IDC.

Strategy Analytics, which reported similar market shares, said the growth had evaporated for Microsoft and its Surface tablets after a number of strong quarters.

"Sales performance for Windows tablets has been fantastic over the last several years but the hero of this segment is missing in action," said Eric Smith of Strategy Analytics.

The Strategy Analytics survey found that sales of Windows tablets, which include Microsoft Surface devices, fell 2% from a year ago to 6.3 million units, which gave the operating system a market share of 15%.