According to research firm IDC, the Philippines tablet market grew by 60% quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter of 2021 as smartphone vendors Nokia, realme, and Xiaomi launched their products in the market. This was, however, still down 44.9% year-on-year.
“Since the suspension of face-to-face schooling, the Philippines tablet market has seen massive annual shipments of almost 1.2 million units in 2021. While this was lower than the 1.9 million in 2020, this was still far higher than the sub-million unit markets in pre-pandemic 2018 and 2019,” said Angela Medez, client devices market analyst at IDC Philippines.
“After nearly two years of remote learning, tablet shipments are expected to decline in 2022 but remain above pre-pandemic levels as the Department of Education commences its ‘progressive expansion’ plans of limited face-to-face classes in areas under alert levels 1 and 2 for both public and private schools in February 2022,” she added.
“The ban on government spending three months before and three months after the elections in May translates into weaker pipelines for vendors in the first half of 2022. But we anticipate some divisions of the Department of Education and other LGUs (local government units) to fulfill tenders from the previous year’s national budget in the first quarter of 2022,” said Medez.
