iPad Air (Photo : Reuters)
With the current increase in demands for phablets, the overall market share of tablet has greatly deteriorated and saw a worldwide decline of 12 percent in the last quarter of 2014.
Research firm Canalys attributed the tablets sales decline to the growing consumer demands of using phablets rather that mashing together a smartphone and a tablet. The firm also added that the fourth quarter decline in tablet sales is the first market decline in the past five years.
A report presented by International Data Corporation confirmed that the Apple iPad has been steadily declining in the past four years, according to Tech Crunch. The iPad only saw a temporary boost in sales when Apple released the iPad Air in the last quarter of 2013.
The iPad saw an overall shipment decline of 18 percent and its closest rival Samsung dropped 24 percent, both on the fourth quarter of 2014. The decline in iPad's sales was attributed to what analysts call "internal cannibalization," the introduction of iPad Plus 6 took some sales prospects to the lower-end iPad.
On the other hand, despite Samsung's fourth quarter sales decline, the company still reached its target sales of 40 million units sold in 2014, according to eWeek.
The Amazon Kindle Fire was one of the biggest flops in 2014 as the tablet's annual shipment fell 66.4 percent with its biggest decline in the fourth quarter marking a 70 percent drop.
However, not all tablets suffered as Lenovo sold 3.7 million units on the same quarter which represents a 9.1 percent increase in sales.
Despite of the overall decline in market sales, analysts predicts that 2015 will be a good year for the tablet market. IDC pointed out the upcoming releasing of Windows 10 could help reinvigorate the weakening state of the tablet industry.
