As predicted by market analysts last year, tablet shipments during the fourth quarter of 2016 declined Year-over-Year. This news comes after International Data Corporation (IDC) released their Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker report for the fourth quarter of 2016. Tablet manufacturers shipped a total of 52.9 million tablets during the fourth quarter compared to 66.2 million units shipped during the same quarter in 2015.
All electronics manufacturers saw a decline in terms of Year-over-Year growth during the fourth quarter of 2016, except for Lenovo and Huawei, both of which saw a growth of 14.8 percent and 43.5 percent respectively. Apple’s tablet shipments declined by 18.8 percent though it still led the market in terms of shipments, while Samsung saw a decline of 11.4 percent. Amazon saw a decrease of 0.6 percent, while shipments of other manufacturers dropped by 35.1. Overall, tablet shipments dropped by 20.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016, Year-over-Year. To break it down further, Apple managed to grab a market share of 24.7 percent and shipped 13.1 million tablets. Samsung came in second with a market share of 15.1 percent and managed to ship 8 million tablets. In third place was Amazon which took home a market share of 9.7 percent and shipped 5.2 million devices. Lenovo and Huawei took the fourth and fifth spots with market shares of 7 percent and 6 percent respectively.
For the full year of 2016, Year-over-Year growth dropped by 15.6 percent, the second year in a row of declining growth for the tablet market. Once again, Apple led the market with a share of 24.4 percent and the company shipped 42.6 million units, a decrease of 14.2 percent from the year 2015. Samsung took second place, having captured 15.2 percent of the market and shipped 26.6 million tablets, a drop of 20.5 percent from the previous year. Amazon saw a huge increase in terms of market share, having shipped 12.1 million tablets throughout the year and managed to capture a market share of 6.9 percent. This represents a 98.8 percent increase in market share from the year 2015. Lenovo sat at fourth with a market share of 6.3 percent having shipped 11.1 million tablets, a decrease of 1.2 percent. The only other manufacturer which experienced an increase of market share was Huawei, which managed to ship 9.7 million tablets, capturing a market share of 5.6 percent, an increase of 49.9 percent.
