Apple & Samsung No Longer Control Majority of Tablet Market

Combined market share for top two falls 8 points year-over-year to 43 percent at end of 2014

Boston, MA - February 25, 2015 – Market share for top two tablet vendors Apple and Samsung fell to 43 percent as total shipment volume growth slowed to 6.6 percent in 2014. According to two new Strategy Analytics’ Tablet & Touchscreen Strategies (TTS) reports, growth is likely to continue along this trajectory but leading tablet vendors cannot rely on inertia alone to hold market share while smaller players compete on price on the low end and innovative new form factors on the high end.

• Lenovo has been pushing forward with Tablets in innovative form factor designs, boosting its 2014 market share by 1.1 points in the last year to 5 percent
• White-Box vendors are building market share – up to 29 percent in 2014 from 24 percent in 2013 – via entry-level and ultra-low priced Tablets in emerging markets and as holiday promotions in developed markets
• Apple will remain the top Tablet vendor for the foreseeable future, but growth will be muted as consumers take longer to replace these premium tier tablets

Quotes:

Peter King, Service Director, Tablet & Touchscreen Strategies, said, “To help reverse the recent downward trend, Samsung needs to strengthen its position in the enterprise and vertical markets, where considerable growth will be seen in the coming years, while new products such as the iPad 12.9-inch Pro version cannot come quickly enough for Apple as it needs to re-ignite growth and demand in its Tablet products.”

Eric Smith, Senior Analyst, Tablet & Touchscreen Strategies, added, “As the Tablet market matures, it is also fragmenting further on price tiers and use case. Vendors producing Windows OS Tablets may have an opening to more aggressively target the enterprise with the launch of Windows 10 later this year, as CIOs value the control and familiarity that Windows could bring to a landscape largely ruled by the bring-your-own-device trend.