Tablet sales continue to decline as Samsung takes biggest hit

Growth in the sector fell 12.3 per cent year on year in Q2

Worldwide tablet shipments fell 12.3 per cent in Q2, according to analyst IDC.

Apple and Samsung, the sector's two biggest players, took the biggest hits with growth declining 9.2 per cent and 24.5 per cent respectively.

Apple saw its shipments drop by one million to 11 million, although its market share increased by almost one per cent, while Samsung's shipments fell by two million to eight million.

Android-based tablets continue to dominate with a market share of 65 per cent, but IDC said there are "early signs" of vendors beginning to abandon the operating system in favour of Windows.

"The market has spoken as consumers and enterprises seek more productive form factors and operating systems - it's the reason we're seeing continued growth in detachables," said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst on IDC's worldwide quarterly mobile device trackers.

"At present, it's difficult for Android to compete with iOS or Windows detachable products.

"However, the next 12 to 18 months will be very interesting as Google launches the next version of Android with better multi-tasking support and as they begin to bring together their two operating systems."

It wasn't doom and gloom for everyone, with Huawei seeing growth of 71 per cent as its shipments jumped from 1.3 million to 2.2 million.

Lenovo also saw growth of 3.1 per cent despite shipments remaining steady year on year.

Earlier this year IDC predicted that tablet sales would continue to fall for the next two years but would rebound in 2018 as sales of detachables increase.