Worldwide tablet shipments fell 12% year on year to 67 million units in Q4 2014 while he desktop market fell back into a decline in the fourth quarter as Windows XP upgrades waned.
Recent Canalys findings also show that the notebook market held firm with another quarter of just 1% growth.
According to the analyst firm, total PC shipments (desktops, notebooks and tablets) fell 6% in Q4 to reach 148 million units, resulting in full-year 2014 shipments of 528 million units, up 3% on 2013.
Apple regained the top spot in the PC market on the strength of holiday sales, with just under 27 million units shipped while Lenovo’s shipments grew 6% year on year to almost 20 million units as it increased its market share to 13.3%.
Samsung dropped out of the top three to make way for HP, with growth of 17% driving shipments over 17 million units, its best quarter since Q3 2011.
Market leader Apple’s year-on-year tablet shipments declined once again (down by 18%) – now the fourth quarter of this trend.
Second-placed Samsung could also not repeat its tablet success of Q4 2013, with its first annual decline of 24% to 11 million units.
“Despite a strong sequential uplift in tablet shipments, the total market contracted for the first time in Q4, as expected,” says Tim Coulling, Senior Analyst, Canalys.
“It was always going to be tough for Apple to repeat its stellar performance of Q4 2013, when it introduced the iPad Air.
“With an iterative product refresh this year, the drive to upgrade iPads was muted. But Apple accounted for over 30% of the market in Q4 and the strength of its ecosystem is helping it weather the storm in an increasingly competitive market.
“Samsung’s tablets have struggled with inventory issues in 2014, which led to a modest 12% sequential increase in shipments.
“It will need to streamline its portfolio and improve channel management if it is to hold onto its share in 2015.”
It was a different story for the other top-tier vendors however, which all grew. Seasonal sales saw Amazon take back the third-place position it occupied a year ago, with 4 million units giving it a 6% share.
Lenovo had its best ever quarter, shipping 3.7 million units for a 5.5% market share. Other notable highlights included Microsoft hitting just over 2 million shipments, and HP crossing the million unit threshold in tablets.
Market slowdown…
In addition to the slowdown at the top of the tablet market, the low end, which primarily consists of 7" Android devices, also suffered significant declines.
“In Q4 2014, 7" tablets made up half of total Android tablet shipments, a segment that has seen steady declines from a high of 66% in the first quarter of the year,” adds Rushabh Doshi, Research Analyst, Canalys.
