Global tablet market slump continues in Q3

New Delhi: Global tablet market continued its slump as vendors shipped 43 million units in the third quarter of 2016, a year-on-year decline of 14.7 percent, research firm IDC said.

In contrast, shipment was up sequentially in the reported period at 9.8 percent over the second quarter of 2016 as the bigger vendors prepared for the holiday quarter, IDC said in its preliminary data report.

Low-cost (sub-USD 200) detachables also reached an all-time high as vendors flooded the market.

"Unfortunately, many low-cost detachables also deliver a low-cost experience. The race to the bottom is something we have already experienced with slates and it may prove detrimental to the market in the long run as detachables could easily be seen as disposable devices rather than potential PC replacements," IDC Senior Research Analyst Jitesh Ubrani said.

Apple led the market with shipment of 9.3 million units and 21.5 percent share in the July-September quarter. Samsung and Amazon followed in the tally with shipments of 6.5 million units (15.1 percent share) and 3.1 million units (7.3 percent share), respectively.

Lenovo and Huawei ranked fourth and fifth in the list with 2.7 million units and 2.4 million units respectively.