IDC: iPad Sales Sink For The First Time As Tablet Market Slows

For the first time since its launch in 2010, the iPad market has declined as the overall tablet market has slowed to 7.2 percent year-over-year growth, according to IDC. The research firm said that at this point last year, the tablet market saw a growth of 52.5 percent and that this year the iPad market has seen a year-over-year drop of 12.7 percent.

The research firm said in a report it released Tuesday that the tablet market's slowdown does not come as a surprise because the life cycle of these devices have continued to lengthen as they resemble PCs more than smartphones.

"Part of what we're seeing that the retail has reached a level, at least in developed countries, that we are waiting to see what exactly the life cycle is of these devices," said Raul De Arriz, national government sales manager for Small Dog Electronics, Waitsfield, Vt., one of the top Apple specialists in the country. "The initial growth was in a segment that didn’t exist, but now the segment has a viable penetration. Now you'll see replacement sales [rather] than sales from when no one had a tablet. We are seeing a mature category. Tablets won't go away. They are an excellent segment. The market will stay strong but the growth will diminish now that it's penetrated. You won't see the ridiculous growth that we originally saw."

[Related: IDC: Top 5 Best-Selling Tablet Brands Of Q3]

id
unit-1659132512259
type
Sponsored post

De Arriz said that while there are less tablet sales as people don't see a need to replace the ones they have yet, we are also seeing phablet phones, such as the iPhone 6 Plus, cannibalize the market of smaller screened tablets, such as the iPad Mini.

Apple recently launched the iPad Air 2 featuring its new Apple Pay platform and Touch ID fingerprint recognition technology, in addition to a thinner casing, a sharper, glare-resistant display and upgrade in internal specs.

"Once Apple Pay becomes a very prevalent platform, which I think it will, I see more and more people upgrading their iPad so they can have Touch ID," De Arriz said. "Immediately, though, people are not yet rushing for that feature. It's a great product, but it doesn’t change the category. We are seeing a mature category. The rumored 13-inch iPad could be a huge seller. I don’t know if it will happen, but it'll be a huge seller if it does. The next big jump will be when tablets can do everything that laptops can do, but that'll eat into the laptop market."

IDC agrees with De Arriz that the decline in tablet growth isn't for a lack of innovation, but that it hasn't been enough to keep up with the impressive growth rate the market had just experienced last year. Tablets are thinner and more powerful and there are also versatile 2-in-1 and detachable product categories.

"We need to look at how the tablet ecosystem is answering these challenges, and right now we see a lot of pressure on tablet prices and an influx of entry-level products, which ultimately serves Android really well," said Jean Philippe Bouchard, research director for IDC in a statement. "But we also see tablet manufacturers trying to offset this price pressure by focusing on larger screens and cellular-enabled tablets. The next six months should be really interesting."

PUBLISHED NOV. 25, 2014