Published on the 27/04/2016 | Written by Beverley Head
Reports suggest that demand for tablet computers and smartphones has gone off the boil as the mobile market approaches saturation and consumers fail to fall for fads…
Australia’s tablet market continues to decline according to the Telsyte Australian Media Tablet Market Study which found that 3.1 million tablets were sold last year, down from 3.8 million in 2014. Price rises in the category propped up revenues by 2 per cent despite the 18 per cent decline in units sold.
Telsyte has forecast that there will be an uptick this year as appetite for the higher end computer-cum-tablet increases especially among professionals. The analyst said that more than half of Australia’s businesses now allow some form of bring your own device in the workplace which could fuel demand.
Global PC sales meanwhile are trending downwards. A report this month from Gartner noted that worldwide PC shipments fell 9.6 per cent during the first quarter of the year – the sixth consecutive quarter drop for the category.
In terms of tablet suppliers the battle lines over market share will be fought mainly on Apple versus Microsoft lines with the latter doubling its share of sales in 2015 compared to 2014 according to Telsyte.
In the smartphone market there was excitement at the start of the year fuelled by Samsung’s S7 which generated good sales globally – but internationally smartphone shipments in the first three months were down 18.6 per cent compared to the previous quarter and 1.3 per cent lower compared to the similar period a year ago.
Global market research firm TrendForce attributed the tail off to market saturation. Growth pockets were still in evidence in unsaturated markets such as India and China, with Chinese handset makers faring well.
Anecdotally, sophisticated mobile consumers – many now on their fourth or fifth generation of smartphone – don’t seem as determined to own the fastest or glitziest devices as they once were, many being directed more by the cyclical nature of their mobile phone plans than hardware vendor driven innovation.
TrendForce noted that Apple had reported its largest quarterly decline ever for iPhone shipments which were down 43.8 per cent from 75 million in the last quarter of 2015, compared to 42 million units in the first quarter of this year. Of course the final quarter of the year includes all handsets destined for under the Western world’s Christmas trees.
TrendForce has however predicted that overall Apple will ship 213 million smartphones this year – 10 per cent fewer than last year.
