Following the first year-over-year decline in worldwide tablet shipments in the fourth quarter of 2014 (4Q14), analyst firm IDC has scaled back its five year forecast for the product category.
The report is consistent with a key finding that Gen X and Millennial professionals believe the smartphone is their most important connected device by 2020.
Worldwide sales of smartphones to end-users had a record fourth quarter of 2014 with an increase of 29.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2013 to reach 367.5 million units, according to research firm Gartner.
The combined consumer and enterprise worldwide wireless local area network (WLAN) market segments increased 7.0 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2014 (4Q14).
As smartphones continued to cannibalize product sales in other small and medium flat-panel-display (FPD) categories, automotive display revenues rose to become the second-highest growth category in 2014, according to research firm IHS.
Android and iOS inched closer to total domination of the worldwide smartphone market in both the fourth quarter (4Q14) and the calendar year 2014 (CY14).
A survey of US and German consumers by research firm Gartner found that 60 percent of consumers are replacing their smartphones because they are interested in additional functionality, or they "just want" a new device.
