Global shipments of branded tablets will rise by a...

First-half unit shipments of iPads fell 13 percent from a year earlier, while Samsung units were up 26 percent, it said. “The roller coaster ride from the leading two tablet vendors has market watchers looking to other vendors to create sustainable growth,” it said. “All eyes are on Lenovo as it is one of few to demonstrate consistent growth over the past year.” Lenovo remains the world’s biggest PC supplier, but now sells more smartphones and tablets than it does PCs, and is the world’s third-largest tablet supplier, Lenovo said in the run-up to the IFA show last month in Berlin (CED Sept 3 p6). Meanwhile, DisplaySearch similarly sees tablet shipments rising only 2 percent this year, the company said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1uagAwO). That’s a marked downgrade from the 14 percent growth DisplaySearch predicted in a previous forecast, the company said. It sees tablet demand growing by single digits through 2018, as leading brands “are changing their business plans,” because the rapid growth of tablets over the past several years “is ending,” it said. “We can expect to see more competitive overlap among display sizes for tablet PCs, notebook PCs, and smartphones, as Apple has announced its new iPhone 6 Plus, with an increased screen size of 5.5 inches, and Microsoft has introduced its new Surface Pro 3 models, with 12-inch screens.” It sees tablets up to 7.9 inches becoming “cannibalized somewhat” by 5.5-inch-and-larger smartphones, it said. Shipments of tablets with 11-inch-and-larger screens will rise from a 2 percent share this year to 14 percent in 2018, as tablets directly compete with smaller laptops with screen sizes up to 13 inches, it said.