Apple Inc remains the leader in a global tablet computer market that has been in an extended slump for the past two years, according to surveys released on Thursday last week.
Tablet sales in the fourth quarter of last year fell 20 percent from a year earlier to 52.9 million units, according to International Data Corp (IDC).
A separate survey by Strategy Analytics Inc said sales slumped 9 percent to 63.5 million.
IDC said overall sales fell 15.6 percent to 178.4 million units last year, in a second consecutive annual decline.
The research firm said many consumers are moving away from the “slate” tablets to more versatile devices with detachable keyboards, which might be categorized as either tablets or PCs.
“The sentiment around the tablet market continues to grow stale, despite a lot of talk about vendors pivoting their product portfolios toward the detachable segment,” IDC analyst Ryan Reith said. “Typical tablets without a dedicated keyboard, which IDC refers to as slate tablets, are continuing to lose relevancy across all regions and, as a result, we see the decline happening globally.”
According to IDC, Apple’s iPad held 24.7 percent of the market, while Strategy Analytics estimated its market share at 20.6 percent.
Samsung Electronics Co was the No. 2 vendor with more than 8 million tablets sold.
IDC estimated Amazon.com Inc sold 5.2 million of its Fire tablets with about 10 percent market share, but Strategy Analytics said Amazon sold 4.2 million units for a 6.7 percent share.
The other manufacturers in the top five were Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) and Huawei Technologies Co (華為), according to the surveys.
Sales of Windows-powered tablets grew 19 percent from a year ago and accounted for 16 percent of the market, with Microsoft Corp the largest vendor in this segment for about 15 percent share, Strategy Analytics analyst Eric Smith said.
NEW IDENTITY: Known for its software, India has expanded into hardware, with its semiconductor industry growing from US$38bn in 2023 to US$45bn to US$50bn India on Saturday inaugurated its first semiconductor assembly and test facility, a milestone in the government’s push to reduce dependence on foreign chipmakers and stake a claim in a sector dominated by China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened US firm Micron Technology Inc’s semiconductor assembly, test and packaging unit in his home state of Gujarat, hailing the “dawn of a new era” for India’s technology ambitions. “When young Indians look back in the future, they will see this decade as the turning point in our tech future,” Modi told the event, which was broadcast on his YouTube channel. The plant would convert
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
New vehicle sales in Taiwan plunged about 37 percent sequentially last month as the long Lunar New Year holiday and 228 Peace Memorial Day holiday cut short the number of working days, along with the lingering uncertainty over import tax cuts on US vehicles, market researcher U-Car said in a report yesterday. New car sales last month totaled 22,043, slumping from 35,073 units in January and down 19.89 percent from 37,515 in February last year, U-Car data showed. Sales of imported luxury cars, led by Mercedes-Benz, plummeted about 45 percent to 3,109 units last month from 5,663 units in the previous month,
RSS