Along with similar declines in the PC industry, tablet sales fall for five quarters with only budget models showing growth

Sales of tablet computers fell by more than 6m over the past year as the market contracted 14.7%, according to a report.

At a time when consumers are questioning whether they really need both a computer and a tablet or either along with a smartphone, the only part of the market to grow was the sub-$200 offerings.



Tablet sales were down from 50.5m to 43.0m year-on-year worldwide in the third quarter, according to IDC, after four straight quarters of double-digit declines. Even premium tablets such as the iPad suffered big declines, with Apple’s sales down 6.2% to 9.3m iPads in Q3 year-on-year. Apple’s marketshare grew though as competitors shrank further, with second-place Samsung down 19.3% and fourth-placed Lenovo down 10.8%.

Amazon, however, continued its rampant growth with its Fire tablets, of which all but one cost £100 or less, up 319.9% in Q3 year-on-year. Amazon is now the third-biggest tablet manufacturer after Apple and Samsung after its 5,421.7% increase in Q1 and 1,208.9% increase in Q2, going from tens of thousands of sales to 7m total tablet sales in three quarters.

Chinese smartphone and electronics manufacturer Huawei also bucked the tumbling trend with a 23.4% increase in year-on-year sales in Q3, after a sales up 116.6% in 2015 and up 82.2% and 71% in the first and second quarters of 2016 respectively.

However, the race to the low end has created quite a few devices that are simply not worth buying. Jitesh Ubrani, senior IDC research analyst, said: “Unfortunately, many low-cost detachables also deliver a low-cost experience.

“The race to the bottom is something we have already experienced with slates and it may prove detrimental to the market in the long run as detachables could easily be seen as disposable devices rather than potential PC replacements.”

Some manufacturers including Amazon have benefited from the ability to cut the right corners and make low-cost machines that aren’t terrible and fill a growing niche for basic media consumption. But cheap and terrible tablets, like the frustrating budget smartphone experiences before 2013, have put people off tablets.

Consumers simply aren’t as interested in tablets as in smartphones, they have instead become the new PC in the drawer that never gets replaced. At the same time 2-in-1 devices - PCs that double in some capacity as tablets with touchscreens - have begun to cannibalise both traditional PC sales and classic mobile operating system tablet sales.

If the decline in high-end tablet sales continues, it’s clear that where people used to buy a high-end tablet for the home, they’re instead turning to the smartphone, the computer or budget models that are just good enough.

