Tablet shipments in the Czech Republic slowed during 2015 on a year-on-year basis as the market became increasingly saturated and users also showed a growing preference for large-screen smartphones or "phablets".
According to a new report from IDC, the market has been slowing since 2013, when a three-digit growth rate was posted in each quarter of the year. The rate fell to double-digit growth in 2014 and grew only 2.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2015, the research company added.
The market then declined by 4.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2015 and by 6.9 per cent in the third quarter. IDC also forecasts a decline for the fourth quarter, followed by stagnation due to market saturation in 2016. Total shipments in 2015 are expected to have reached 0.9 million units.
IDC noted that this is already more than the entire notebook market, which consists of 0.8 million newly shipped units; the entire PC market totals 1.1 million units.
At the beginning of 2016, the number of tablets shipped is forecast to exceed the number of PCs (desktops and notebooks combined). IDC said this would largely be the after-effect of the inflated market of Bing-based entry-level PCs and the transition to the newer version of the operating system.
Moreover, tablets are more affordable than PCs, generally costing about 44 per cent of the average PC price in the third quarter of 2015. IDC said the average selling price (ASP) for a tablet in 2015 was $256, the same level seen in 2014.
"As tablets represented only 72 per cent of PC shipment volume in Q3, and the average price was only 44 per cent, total tablet market revenue represented only 32 per cent of overall PC market revenue," IDC added.
In 2016, IDC said Android will remain the predominant OS, with the share of Apple iOS dropping by a third. More than two-thirds of tablets had only WiFi (non-cellular) connectivity, and this is expected to remain unchanged in 2016.
For more:
- see this IDC release
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