The global tablet market is starting to mature and there is not as much demand for new devices as last year. It is currently being estimated that 221.4 million units will be shipped in 2015, slipping by 11.9% compared to 2014.
Leading the market will be Apple, with iPad shipments of 54.2 million units, representing a decrease on year by 16.6%, the report, titled 2015 global tablet demand forecast notes. Other leading international vendors will combine to ship 90.7 million units, growing by 0.1%. White label tablets, which are customized for small and indie level companies will be hit the hardest, with shipments falling 20.0% to 76.5 million units.
If you want to get a sense of the exact percentages, Apple will account for 24.5% of total shipments, Samsung Electronics for 16.3%, Lenovo 5.3%, Asus 4.2%, Google 1.7%, Acer 1.7% and Amazon 1.6%.
220 million units is still a fairly solid figure, but this research is basically saying that people are switching to larger smartphones and keeping their tablets longer. These days, there simply isn’t a compelling enough reason to upgrade your device every year.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
