idcTablet – This year we have heard a lot about the resurgence of the notebook PC and the demise of the tablet PC. The PC industry was almost ecstatic about the possibility of market growth, even though only in the notebook segment.
Now the latest results show a familiar trend, tablet sales are up and PC sales are stagnant or even pointing downwards.
The British market research company Key Note just reports on the overall status of the computer hardware industry in the UK. According to its data, the total computer hardware industry in the UK grew by 0.4% in 2013 and the forecast for 2014 is similarly constrained, though with higher hopes for 2015.
Key Note sees the desktop market in a continued decline, while the notebook segment is still holding on. Growth is coming from the tablet market, though the analyst sees a slowdown in tablet market growth. This slowdown is interpreted as a sign of nearing the saturation point.
IDC saw an uptick of 11.5% in tablet shipments in 3Q’14 of the same quarter in 2013 according to Venture Beat. In total IDC saw an increase in tablet shipments to 53.8 million units from 47.6 million a year ago. The company sees the top five vendors as Apple, Samsung, Asus, Lenovo and RCA.
The total PC market saw a decline of 1.7% in 3Q’14 compared to the same quarter in 2013 according to IDC. This equates to shipments of 78.5 million units.
ABI Research sees a total shipment volume of 36 million “branded” tablets in the third quarter. This would account for roughly 11 million white box tablets being sold in Q3, almost 25% of the market. ABI sees the top three tablet makers as Apple, Samsung and Lenovo.
For the same period Gartner reports that PC shipments declined only by 0.5% compared to 2013 or 79.4 million units.
So far everything looks pretty close between the different firms, however to confuse the reader at least a little, Gartner excludes Chromebooks, but includes shipments of X86 tablets equipped with Windows 8. IDC on the other hand includes Chromebooks but not any type of tablets. Go figure. – Norbert Hildebrand
