Amazon has been smashed in the tablet market during the last quarter, with a 49.5% fall in tablet sales, both Apple and Samsung who hold the bulk of the global tablet market have also been hit with declines of 14.2% across the board affecting most tablet manufacturers.
In the Chromebook market HP who are struggling to grow PC sales was down 16%, Dell 28.1%, and Acer the market leader down 6.3%.
Individually in the tablet market, Samsung was down 17.1% while Apple’s share was down 15.1%, Lenovo was down 4.2% and Amazon a massive 49.5% with no explanation given by the big online retailer.
Apple has 37.5% of the tablet market, Samsung 18.0%, Amazon 6.5% down from 11.1% and Lenovo 7.9%%.
33.2 million units were shipped according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker.
Despite constricted demand, the market saw an upsurge of 18% over the previous quarter due to seasonality.
Chromebook shipments contracted in 3Q23 with shipments totalling 3.5 million units for a year-over-year decline of 20.8%.
IDC claims that the market for Chromebooks is potentially in a better position due to a pending refresh in the education segment and leftover budgets within government spending.
Apple led the tablet market with shipments of 12.5 million units yet declined 15.1% year over year.
Unlike past years, Apple has forgone the launch of new models during the third quarter, which typically provides an uplift in the second half of the year.
Samsung shipped 6 million units in the quarter and ranked second overall.
Though the company’s shipments have contracted, the tablet maker seems focused on a turnaround by concentrating on the premium segment along with additional marketing campaigns which are currently being rolled out in Australia running into the peak buying period.
Lenovo landed in the third and fourth position this quarter with shipments of 2.6 million units.
After a dismal performance last quarter, Amazon was able to reposition itself in the top 5 by gearing up for the holiday season and launching a new value-priced premium device, the Fire Max 11.
“The first three quarters of 2023 recorded some of the largest contractions in the tablet market and the upcoming holiday season isn’t expected to be very different.
With no dramatic improvements in macroeconomic conditions, project and purchase delays are expected to be pushed further into 2024,” said Anuroopa Nataraj, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers. “Refresh in the education segment and growth in use cases across verticals might help the tablet market to stay afloat in the long run, but in the near future we don’t expect any significant uptick in tablet sales.”
“Tablets have unfortunately always found themselves in an awkward middle ground between PCs and smartphones, and this continues to put downward pressure on the market,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager with IDC’s Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers.
“However, the most successful tablet makers have realized that the tablet works best when paired with rather than against a PC or smartphone and as such we expect other tablet makers to follow suit by offering a more unified software and services experience though this will take some time to coalesce.”
