Huawei Big Winner in Q3 Tablet Market That Had 4th Straight Quarterly Decline, IDC Says
Though Huawei still controls a relatively small share of the global tablet market, it was the big Q3 winner in tablet shipment growth, IDC said Thursday in its quarterly “tracker” report. Huawei shipped 1.8 million tablets in the quarter, a…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
148 percent increase from the same 2014 quarter, enabling the company to nearly triple its global share to 3.7 percent from 1.3 percent in Q3 a year earlier, IDC said. As a result, Huawei finished the quarter in fifth place in global share behind Apple, Samsung, Lenovo and Asus, it said. “Huawei has been successful in finding its niche -- cellular-enabled tablets,” the research firm said. “With over two-thirds of its tablets being mobile connected, the vendor has been able to appeal to the growing trend of tablets used for voice calling and tablets used in markets with low broadband penetration.” Overall, the global tablet market had lower shipments for the fourth straight quarter, with 49.4 million units shipped in Q3, an 11.2 percent decrease from the same 2014 quarter, it said. Despite signs of a “slight seasonal improvement,” the latest double-digit decline highlights “the challenges the tablet market is facing,” it said. "The traditional slate tablet has a place in the personal computing world,” IDC said. “However, as the smartphone installed base continues to grow and the devices get bigger and more capable, the need for smaller form factor slate tablets becomes less clear. With shipment volumes slowing over four consecutive quarters, the market appears to be in transition."