Preference For Large Smartphones Eating Into Tablet Sales
Meanwhile, in mature markets like the US where tablets have been shipping in large volumes since 2010 and are already well established, IDC is less concerned about large phones cannibalising shipments and is more worried about market saturation, he added.
IDC also revised the tablet shipment volumes downwards by over 20 million units for 2017 adding that growth will slow to single-digit rates.
“By 2017, annual market growth will slow to single-digit percentages and shipments will peak at 386.3 million units, down from the previous forecast of 407 million units,” it said.
One key factor to watch going forward is the mix of small versus large tablets, IDC added.
The market has trended toward small tablets in a big way over the last 24 months, but rise of large phones could well push consumers back toward larger tablets as the difference between a 6-inch smartphone and a 7-inch tablet is not great enough to warrant purchasing both, the research firm added.
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