Tablet sales to continue to slow in 2015

Demand for tablets will continue to be slow in 2015, says analyst Gartner, after it described 2014 as a ‘troubled year’ for the sector. 

Gartner estimates that worldwide tablet sales will reach 233 million units in 2015, an eight per cent increase from 2014.

Worldwide combined shipments of devices (PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones) for 2015 are estimated to reach 2.5 billion units, an increase of 3.9 per cent over 2014.

"The collapse of the tablet market in 2014 was alarming," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. "In the last two years global sales of tablets were growing in double-digits. The steep drop can be explained by several factors. One is that the lifetime of tablets is being extended – they are shared out amongst family members and software upgrades, especially for iOS devices, keep the tablets current. Another factor includes the lack of innovation in hardware which refrains consumers from upgrading.

"We expect development in cognisant computing to help the vendors’ relationships with consumers evolve from passive providers of hardware to in-sync with the user.

"Beyond an enriched computing experience for the user, this next phase of the personal cloud will also help make the vendor and customer’s relationships more personal, with services and advertising automatically tailored to consumer demands."

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, Gartner analysts expect the vendors in the devices space to announce new partnerships and apps that use personal data to tailor the user experience.

In the operating system (OS) market, Android surpassed a billion shipments of devices in 2014, and will continue to grow at a double-digit pace in 2015, with a 26 per cent increase year-on-year/

"From 2015, we expect Windows to grow faster than iOS, as the PC market stabilises and the challenge for the next iPhone to find significant growth becomes greater, narrowing the gap between the two operating systems," added Atwal.

Worldwide Device Shipments by Segment, 2014-2016 (Thousands of Units)

Worldwide Device Shipments by Operating System, 2014-2016 (Thousands of Units)

More of Gartner’s market forecast data is available at http://www.gartner.com/document/2945917.