Huawei thrives as tablet market plummets

Chinese challenger the only vendor to see growth as Apple, Samsung and Amazon struggle

Chinese vendor Huawei was the only vendor to see growth in its tablet business in Q4 last year, as western European tablet shipments declined 13.1 year on year.

Ten million tablet units were shipped in Q4 2017, with the top four suppliers - Apple, Samsung, Amazon and Lenovo - all seeing their positions weaken.

Apple remained the market leader, with a share of 24.1 per cent, down one per cent on the same period in 2016.

Third-placed Amazon saw the greatest decline at 19.2 per cent.

Huawei, while having a market share of only 5.6 per cent, saw its tablet business grow 27.7 per cent.

However, despite seeing shipments decrease, Apple and Samsung still saw their quarterly revenue increase, as a result of focusing on high-end devices.

IDC senior research analyst Daniel Goncalves said: "Profitability is increasingly becoming the focus among the most important tablet manufacturers.

"The performance of Apple and Samsung, the two main players in the western European market, together representing over 40 per cent of all tablet shipments, reflects the increasing concern for value over volume. Both posted double-digit growth in revenue YoY, despite the single-digit declines YoY in units."

Slate tablets were branded the primary cause for the shipments drop by IDC, with this market segment dropping 15.4 per cent.

Premium detachable devices saw shipments increase 8.5 per cent.