With shifting priorities among government agencies over procurement of tablets for educational purposes, IDC said it anticipates commercial tablet shipments to contract in 2024.
For calendar year 2023, worldwide tablet shipments totaled 128.5 million units, a decline of 20.5% compared to 2022 and the lowest annual volume since 2011.
IDC said it expects annual tablet shipments to be back to pre-pandemic levels below one million units beginning in 2023 now that commercial segment have slowed down as procurements among DepEd divisions and local government units (LGU) have tapered off.
Both Samsung and Cherry Mobile continued to dominate the tablet market space accounting for more than half of the total annual shipments the last three years since the pandemic started in 2020.
This was the fifth straight quarter of decline for the tablet market. Chromebook shipments also struggled in 3Q22, falling to 4.3 million units and a year-over-year decline of 34.4%.
Big tenders from LGUs and different division offices of the DepEd refueled the education segment, with local brand Cherry Mobile accounting for more than 60% of this segment.
Worldwide tablet shipments reached 40.5 million units during the second quarter of 2022 (2Q22), posting year-over-year growth of 0.15%, according to preliminary data from research firm IDC.
According to IDC, Chromebook shipments grew 68.6% year over year with volumes reaching 12.3 million units. The tablet segment was a bit more tempered than Chromebooks but still managed to grow 4.2% year over year with shipments totaling 40.5 million units.
