A comeback is ahead. But not for a bit.
When it comes to the tablet market, worldwide shipments are expected to decline by 12% in 2016, rounding out the year at 182.3 million shipments, according to a new forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker.
IDC expects the market to rebound in 2018 though growth will remain in the low single digits as detachable tablets slowly gain traction.
“The benefits of a thin and light design combined with a touchscreen are bolstering growth in the detachable tablet market, but are also bleeding over into the PC market as slim and convertible-type notebooks gain popularity,” said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers. “This is a welcome change for vendors as average selling prices for notebooks and tablets are expected to increase in the near term.”
According to the IDC, from a geographic perspective, emerging markets will continue to decline until 2018 and then growth will flatten out in the following two years.
