iPad might see its first year of decline as tablet growth shrinks in 2014

The worldwide tablet growth is expected to have significantly declined in 2014, with just 7.2% year-over-year growth compared to 52.5% in 2013

2014 has witnessed a considerable decline in the tablet growth as suggested by the numbers revealed by the market research company IDC. With a 52.5% year over year growth reported in 2013, the 7.2% of this year seems drastically low and iPad is on its way to experience its first year of decline as its market share has also taken a dip as most customers run for the cheaper alternatives in the market.

According to IDC, the general decline in the sales of the iPad as well as other tablets in the market is not that surprising because the tablets, as opposed to smartphones, have longer lifecycles which are closer to those of the computers. Initially, it was speculated that tablets would last for about 2 to 3 years with a single user but recent examples have shown that people are actually holding on to their tablets for longer than that.

Ryan Reith, Program Director with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers, says “What has played out instead is that many tablet owners are holding onto their devices for more than 3 years and in some instances more than 4 years. We believe the two major drivers for longer than expected tablet lifecycles are legacy software support for older products, especially within iOS, and the increased use of smartphones for a variety of computing tasks.”

Much of the future of the landscape of these tablets basically depends on how the industry is going to react to a few things including Windows 10, what Google has in store for Android and its Chrome OS and also Apple’s product line extension with the oft-rumored iPad Pro. Jean Philippe Bouchard, Research Director for Tablets, says “The next six months should be really interesting” and we have our fingers crossed.

source: businesswire, via