According to the IDC (International Data Corporation), the tablet market is in trouble with sales falling 29.9% or 28.3 million units in the second quarter of 2023 but Chromebooks are doing better. 

Like the smartphone industry downturn, which Apple acknowledged recently, demand for tablets has continued to decrease with many of the top vendors reporting a double-digit free fall in sales including market leaders Apple and Samsung. 

High amounts of channel inventory could also indicate that new tablet shipments could slow further in coming months claim IDC.

On a bright note, it was revealed that the year-over-year decline of Chromebooks was only 1.8% in 2Q23.

With its affluent userbase, Apple led the tablet market with shipments of 10.5 million units, but still documented a year-over-year decline of 16.8% and may be less affected by the economic slump.

While Samsung placed second overall, distributing 5.8 million units in the quarter, but posted a decline of 18.3% year-over-year due to a slowing in demand which might be affected positively by its newest released tablet.

For Lenovo, the company pulled in rank in third position with a shipment volume of 2.1 million units for the quarter but posted a significant weakening of 38.8% year-over-year. Growth of 12.9% was found, however, this quarter compared to last, which could be attributed to increased marketing efforts and newly launched products.

“The economic market conditions in the past years made way for several tablet deployments. Products that have more features but are also economically priced are well accepted, especially in the emerging markets as they bring in high value to consumers,” said Anuroopa Nataraj, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers.

Nataraj is hitting the nail on the head with what we are seeing in the market already, consumers spending less on premium tech but still spending on comparative mid-tier products. A trend we expect to see continue in the current economic environment.Â