Global tablet shipments declined 10% sequentially and over 15% on year to reach only 45.76 million units in the second quarter, according to Digitimes Research's latest report on the global tablet market. Major markets felt the impacts of weak currencies; mid-range to entry-level large-size smartphones continued to cannibalize tablets; and vendors saw high inventory.
Tablet shipments from white-box players were 16.6 million units in the second quarter, down over 10% sequentially as these devices' demand was greatly impacted by large-size smartphones and competitor products from brand vendors. White-box players' dual-OS tablets also saw weakening demand, data collected by Digitimes Research showed.
Apple's iPad shipments continued to decline and reached 10.3 million units in the second quarter because of seasonality. Apple will stop the production of its existing iPad mini in the near future and the new fourth-generation iPad mini is expected to launch in the early fourth quarter.
Non-Apple brand vendors had stable performance in the second quarter, during which they shipped 18.86 million tablets, down 7.4% sequentially. Samsung Electronics and Lenovo were the second and the third largest, followed by Microsoft in fourth place thanks to significant demand for its Surface 2-in-1 devices.
TCL, which sees stable development in non-China markets, continues to expand its tablet business via its smartphone channels and surpassed Asustek Computer - which saw its Android- and Windows-based tablet devices impacted by weak demand - by a slight gap.
Taiwan ODMs' combined tablet shipments in the second quarter also achieved a new low at 15.47 million units. The largest Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) was greatly impacted by iPad Air's weak sales, while Compal had acquired extra iPad mini orders from Apple. Compal accounted for 30% of all tablets shipped from Taiwan-based makers.
