The end of the year holiday sales for tablets saw Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung Electronics report dismal numbers. Data reported by consumer research firm IDC, revealed that there was a distinct drop in tablet sales across brands in 2014, with the exception of Lenovo.
While the drop in sales of tablet form factor is for the first time since their dramatic launch by Apple Inc, half-decade ago, the research firm does predict that next year the sale of the tablet would once again revive.
Fall in Tablet sales
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) experts predict that the drop in iPad sales may have been to the launch of the new range of iPhones – the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus. The latest of the smaller display-screen devices from Apple Inc appears to have a made a large impact on Apple device buyers.
As per the research firm’s studies, Apple Inc. has shipped over 21.4 million tablets over the 2014 fiscal. In contrast Samsung was found to have shipped nearly half the numbers at 11 million units. Fortunately for Samsung, the drop in tablet sales was for the previous quarter, while it managed to post 1% shipments for the year. Contrastingly, Apple saw a drop of over 14.6% in shipments for the period 2013 to 2014.
However, tablet sales appear to have passed over one company, Lenovo, which has posted 9% growth in shipments over previous year. Lenovo sold 11.2 million tablets, and 43.5% growth in the year. The most affected of the tablet manufacturers, however, appears to have been Amazon Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) which saw a decline of over 70% despite new product line-up.
South Korean smartphone and tablet maker, Samsung Electronics, noted a miniscule growth of 1 percent year-on-year growth in tablet shipments.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) expects to see the iPad buyers return in 2015 fiscal as it may take a while for it to launch newer versions of its smaller display screen devices. In the meanwhile, Samsung electronics has developments in the pipeline, as it looks to introduce its own processor’s over QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) in some of its devices.
