IDC: Russian tablets market falls 8.5% in Q1 2016

IDC Russia said tablet shipments in the country fell by 8.5 per cent year-on-year to 919,000 units in the first quarter of 2016, while in terms of value in U.S. dollars the market shrank by 12.9 per cent.

The research company noted that Digma and Samsung remained overall market leaders. However, users are showing a growing preference for convertible tablets with detachable keyboards -- a segment where Asus is currently the market leader, followed by Lenovo, Samsung, Apple and DEXP. Here, shipments increased by 87.2 per cent.

IDC senior analyst Natalia Vinogradova noted that consumers continue to postpone the purchase of a tablet due to a fall in real income and the desire to buy a "universal device", including low-cost smartphones with 4G/LTE support.

Android remained the most popular operating system and accounted for 84.8 per cent of the market. However, IDC noted that the share of devices running Apple iOS and Windows continues to increase. The average unit price in the first quarter was $143 (€128).

Vinogradova said demand for tablets would continue to decline in the near future as the average term of service increases.

"Many manufacturers are engaged in the improvement of existing solutions. Current models do not have revolutionary new features that can cause serious interest among consumers," she said.

The development of the Russian tablet market reflects a similar trend in Western Europe, where IDC said the PC and tablet market as a whole contracted by 13.7 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter, with total shipments reaching 18.2 million units.

Here, ultra-slim convertible and detachable tablets are also growing in popularity, increasing 44.7 per cent in the period and accounting for 18.4 per cent of total consumer shipments and 21.9 per cent of commercial devices in the first quarter of 2016, up from 9.2 per cent and 16.3 per cent respectively a year ago.

For more:
- see the IDC Russia release (in Russian)

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