Tablet market set for slowdown as iPad shipments decline

Report from IDC predicts tablet market to see a massive deceleration in growth

The worldwide tablet market is expected to undergo a massive deceleration in 2014, driven by a decline in Apple iPad shipments, says IDC.

According to the the analyst, global tablet growth will be at 7.2 per cent year over year for 2014, down from 52.5 per cent in 2013.

Ryan Reith, programme director at IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers, said: "In the early stages of the tablet market, device life cycles were expected to resemble those of smartphones, with replacement occurring every two to three years.

"What has played out instead is that many tablet owners are holding on to their devices for more than three years and in some instances more than four years. We believe the two major drivers for longer-than-expected tablet life cycles are legacy software support for older products, especially within iOS, and the increased use of smartphones for a variety of computing tasks," Reith said.

The report from IDC also sees a slow uptake of two-in-one tablets as being critical to the lack of tablet growth.

Total tablet shipments for 2014 are expected to be 235.7 million, a figure which is expected to rise to 285.9 million by 2018.

According to the report, Android will hold the lion's share of this with 159.5 million shipments for 2014, and a 67.7 per cent slice of the market.

This will be followed by iOS, which is expected to have 64.9 million global shipments, and a 27.5 per cent share of the market. IDC expects iOS to experience a year-over-year drop in shipments of 12.7 per cent.