Tablet and Chromebook market continues dip in Q3

The post-pandemic effect continues as worldwide tablet and Chromebook shipments continued to slide year on year in Q3. According to IDC, the tablet market declined 14.2 percent while the Chromebook market dropped 20.8 percent in Q3 compared to the same period last year.

Apple retained its pole position in the tablet market despite dipping 15.1 percent to 12.5 million units in Q3. Unlike past years, it did not launch new models in Q3, which typically provides an uplift in the second half of the year.

Samsung shipped six million units in the quarter and ranked second overall. Though the company’s shipments have contracted, the tablet maker seems focused on a turnaround by concentrating on the premium segment along with additional marketing campaigns.

Lenovo and Huawei come in third and fourth with shipments of 2.6 million and 2.3 million units respectively.

Amazon held its top 5 position despite shedding nearly 50 percent compared to last year.

“The first three quarters of 2023 recorded some of the largest contractions in the tablet market and the upcoming holiday season isn’t expected to be very different. With no dramatic improvements in macroeconomic conditions, project and purchase delays are expected to be pushed further into 2024. Refresh in the education segment and growth in use cases across verticals might help the tablet market to stay afloat in the long run, but in the near future we don’t expect any significant uptick in tablet sales,” said Anuroopa Nataraj, Senior Research Analyst of IDC’s Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers.

“Tablets have unfortunately always found themselves in an awkward middle ground between PCs and smartphones, and this continues to put downward pressure on the market. However, the most successful tablet makers have realised that the tablet works best when paired with rather than against a PC or smartphone and as such we expect other tablet makers to follow suit by offering a more unified software and services experience though this will take some time to coalesce,” said Jitesh Ubrani, Research Manager with IDC’s Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers.

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