IDC: Tablet sales dropped by 0.6% in Q4 2019, Apple still leads

31 January 2020
Apple and Amazon were the only two vendors to see sales growth in 2019.

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  • Q
  • Qwericus
  • YeV
  • 27 Feb 2020

After reading the previous comments as well as various business reports this is what's happening: with the only exception of the iPad the tablet market has been, and continues to be, in a slow and steady decline. Only Apple has prevented this market from getting any worse.
Samsung and Amazon have monetary pockets deep enough to endure any losses, but the rest of the companies will eventually pull out within 5 years. There's little, if any, Google apps specifically for tablets as I understand it. I do hope tablets will still be around in the near future.

    S Yu, 31 Jan 2020As a tablet experience, iPad's is more authentic. Microsoft... moreYeah table wise iPads are authentic device! But you also said about price as well. In that sense iPad's trim model are also overpriced! Windows offer comparably better at the same price point.

      Fearghast, 31 Jan 2020He's right you know. You are able to buy slower PCs than iP... moreSlower PC? You mean a table with core i7 will be slower than A12x bionic? You might be high! Don't compare foolishly ARM based apks to X86 real softwares.. Windows PCs are way more usable and workable than any iPad..

        • ?
        • Anonymous
        • uSW
        • 01 Feb 2020

        The only decent tablet for Android that came out last year with a reasonable price was Huawei Mediapad M6. The rest are overpriced and cheap tablet with low specs. The ipad pretty much cornered the market.

          • S
          • S Yu
          • ps8
          • 31 Jan 2020

          AND NAND, 31 Jan 2020Hahaha you might be joking! Except iPad and later iPad OS t... moreAs a tablet experience, iPad's is more authentic. Microsoft has so far failed to successfully integrate the desktop with the tablet. I've had a Windows tablet arguably better than the Surface of that generation for over 2 years, and now the latest XPS 13 2-in-1, but the changes Microsoft's made to make Windows more touch-friendly has been more annoyance than convenience.
          For example Onenote2016 that I use every day, while vastly superior in terms of functions and customizations compared to iOS Onenote, felt severely underpowered in touch mode. They simply locked most visual elements to a ridiculously large size with huge blank margins around them. As a result, not only did it fail to display all my common pen selections and ink colors on one page(forcing me to scroll), I had far less canvas to write on on my screen compared to my iPP. Currently, I use the XPS usually without using tablet mode, to prevent it from messing with magnification and UI elements, touch mode is also off in Onenote2016 as I extensively use a stylus and keyboard shortcuts anyway, and the default magnification of the app at 125% system-wide magnification(again, less than MS's default) doesn't prove a problem for touch operation.
          Oh, Dell's "premium stylus", or whatever, that retails for $99, has very very poor inking with your choice of either severe diagonal jitter or severe lag on different firmware, both making it *impossible* to write with, so I'm still using my Apple Pencil on my iPP despite lack of an eraser button and the limitations of iOS Onenote. I only have Wacom's Bamboo Ink Plus left to try, and if it's jittery or laggy on my Dell, I may have to sell the whole thing to get a new Surface Pro, which is way overpriced: basically removing the keyboard, stylus, half your storage, some screen and some battery for the price of my current XPS13 2-in-1. I agree that Surface Pen 4th gen was pretty good, but it doesn't work (nor does the 5th gen, I tried) on the XPS despite Dell claiming MPP compatibility, some useless fragmentation of stylus protocol...

            AND NAND, 31 Jan 2020Hahaha you might be joking! Except iPad and later iPad OS t... moreHe's right you know. You are able to buy slower PCs than iPads ... I have no idea why would you ever do that, but it's possible to buy slower PC :)
            ... not to mention retarded mobile os vs. desktop ofc.

            As an long iPad Pro user, I must say: iPads are great for chilling on sofa, for anything else not so much (downright useless for work or real (not mobile) games).

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • 6jq
              • 31 Jan 2020

              DavidRegalJnr, 31 Jan 2020iPads are the only tablets worth buying tbh..PC level performanceTab S6 if they were not to kill Ubuntu on DeX, tab S5e is the only remaining solution. Real IDEs, real web tools.

              I guess iPad are good for music producers, for the rest of us are kind of toys though, not good tablets at all... Surface pros would have been great too if they were not stuck in 2014...

                DavidRegalJnr, 31 Jan 2020iPads are the only tablets worth buying tbh..PC level performanceHahaha you might be joking! Except iPad and later iPad OS these nothing comparable to all windows table based specially surface series.. Total PC experience

                  iPads are the only tablets worth buying tbh..PC level performance

                    • I
                    • I'mPhone
                    • 6c9
                    • 31 Jan 2020

                    Lenovo is still alive? Even Chuwi seems to beat Lenovo anyway.