The tablet market has been in a state of constant decline and the final quarter of last year was no different. Global tablet shipments fell 9 percent in Q4 2016 according to a report by Strategy Analytics. Apple and Samsung, the two largest tablet vendors on the market, both contributed to this decline as they saw their tablet shipments post a double digit decline.
Samsung shipped 9 million units in the fourth quarter of 2015 and thus accounted for 12.9 percent of the entire tablet market. The company shipped 8.1 million units during the same quarter last year and thus posted a 10 percent decline in shipments year-over-year. It accounted for 12.8 percent of the overall tablet market in the final quarter of last year. Apple saw an even bigger decline as it went from shipping 16.1 million units in Q4 2015 to 13.1 million units in Q4 2016, registering a 19 percent decline.
Besides these two, Amazon, Lenovo and Huawei all saw their shipments increase considerably in the previous quarter, ranging from 21 percent all the way up to 49 percent. Samsung will breathe new life into its tablet lineup this year by launching the Galaxy Tab S3 and the Windows 10-powered Galaxy TabPro S2 in the coming weeks.
