IDC: Tablet shipments set to fall for next two years

But detachable tablets will lead a revival in 2018

Global tablet shipments are expected to decline for the second consecutive year, according to IDC's Quarterly Tablet Tracker.

The analyst anticipates a 9.6 per cent fall year on year in 2016, followed by a further drop in 2017.

Despite three years of negative growth, the market is set to rebound in 2018, driven by detachable tablet sales.

Detachable tablets currently account for 16 per cent of the market, but IDC expects this to almost double to 31 per cent by 2020.

"The detachable tablet segment is considered by some manufacturers, like Apple, as a way to spur replacement cycles of the existing slate tablet installed base," said Jean Philippe Bouchard, research director, tablets at IDC.

"One reason why the slate tablet market is experiencing a decline is because end users don't have a good enough reason to replace them, and that's why productivity-centric devices such as detachable tablets are considered replacement devices for high-end larger slate tablets."

Despite the fall in tablet sales, IDC still predicts sales of around 100 million units in 2020, driven by low costs.

Ryan Reith, program vice president of IDCs Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers, said: "In many emerging markets the only computing device for many will be a mobile device, whether that is a small-screen tablet, smartphone, or both. This is the main reason why, despite all the hype that the detachable category receives, we believe cheaper slate tablets fill an important void."

With detachable tablets set to spark a revival in a couple of years, IDC expects Windows to lose a chunk of its market share by 2020.

Detachable Windows tablets currently account for 70 per cent of the market, but progress from Apple and Android tablets will bring this down to 51 per cent, IDC claims.