IDC paints a picture of a slowdown in the tablet market

Market analysis firm IDC has published a new report with the state of the market for tablets and hybrids and their predictions about the future of the same It reflects on issues such as the slowdown of a sector that was expected to grow faster, but in which a large part of the players will have to revise their forecasts downward. Good part but not all, because Microsoft could be one of the few that still has room for growth.

According to IDC estimates the tablet market will suffer a major slowdown in 2014, staying at un annual growth of 7.4%, a figure well below the 52.3% experienced in 2013.From IDC they believe that such a reduction in growth is mainly due to the fact that consumers are not replacing their tablets as frequently as expected. Added to this is the rise of smartphones with large screens and their acceptance as devices for carrying out tasks that at first were thought to be reserved for tablets.

Whether for one reason or another, at IDC we believe that the slowdown is evident and that it will continue to spread over the next few years. According to his predictions, the tablet market will only experience an annual growth of 3.8% in 2018. By that year, Android will continue to be the dominant system, followed by far by iOS. In third place will be Windows, which will be the only one capable of growing significantly to represent 11.4% of sales, with 32.6 million units placed during the twelve months of 2018

Back to 2014, IDC estimates that Windows currently has a 4.6% market share, a small percentage that leaves considerable room for growth ahead of Microsoft's system. And that is not little in a market in which the rest of the competitors could already have reached a certain point of stagnation. Thus, iPad would be experiencing its first year of decline, while in 2014 sales of tablets with Windows would increase by 67.3%

These numbers include devices called hybrids or convertibles, which include tablets with a keyboard that may or may not be detachable. These still represent a very small number of global tablet sales, just 4%, but they are mostly computers with Windows 8/8.1 installed. From IDC they believe that the reluctance of consumers to adopt the current version of Microsoft's operating system could be reducing its market penetration.A situation that could change with the arrival of Windows 10, a system whose final performance is still a mystery but which could perfectly derail all these predictions.

Via | PhoneArena > IDC