The death of the tablet?
New figures reveal global shipments have slumped by more than 13% since last year
The tablet market is still going south.
New data out from IDC shows that the worldwide tablet market fell 13.5 percent year- over- year in the second quarter.
That means the tablet market has declined yearover-year for the past 15 consecutive quarters - casting a gloomy outlook on the state of tablet computer sales.
The only bright spot in the report is that, among tablet manufacturers, Apple and Huawei saw their shipments tick slightly higher.
Apple shipped 11.5 million tablets during the second quarter, up from 11.4 million in the previous year, while Huawei shipped 3.4 million tablets, an increase from the 3.1 million it shipped during the same period of 2017.
That marked a 7.7 percent increase year-over-year for Huawei and a 0.9% annual increase for Apple.
The total amount of tablets shipped worldwide in the second quarter was 33 million, down five million from the 2017 second quarter.
' Though consumers and businesses alike have shown interest in the detachable form factor, those operating on tighter budgets have had very few options available to them and hence some have opted for traditional PCs,' Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst for IDC, said in a statement.
'However, with the launch of the Surface Go, ChromeOS- based, and hopefully a more affordable iPad Pro in the future, the detachable category still has a bright future, provided the performance and software lines up with users' expectations.'
Apple is in the lead among all tablet providers, controlling approximately 35 percent of the market.
The company released what it called its ' most affordable iPad yet' in March.
The device features a 9.7inch screen and starts at $329 for consumers and $299 for schools.
It'll now face renewed competition with Microsoft, which launched the Surface Go last month.
The new tablet is a smaller, cheaper alternative to its popular Surface Pro device.
Surface Go boasts a 10- inch touchscreen, nine hours of battery life, front- facing camera with facial recognition login, and USB- C port for charging and data transfers.
Like previous devices in the Surface tablet range, the new device is compatible with the Surface Pen stylus to make annotations and doodles on-screen.
The entry- level model starts at $399, while the higher-end version goes for $549.