Recently, Canalys released their latest figures, revealing the performance of the notebooks as well as the tablet for the second quarter. As per their latest report, the tablet shipments fell by five percent to 48.4 million units for the second quarter. As for the notebooks, the shipments stayed the same as the last quarter with the number residing at 49.1 million units in the same quarter. Overall, the PC shipments saw a sharp rise of 14 percent for the second quarter of 2014 globally, increasing the shipments to 123.9 million units.
Apple continues to lead with a 14 percent increase in the shipments of Mac, but if you take into account the iPads as well, the shipments have fallen by five percent. Leveno resides at the second spot when it comes to PC shipments, and has seen an impressive increase of 20 percent year-on-year. HP and Dell captured the third and fourth spot, with the year-to-year shipments rising by 11 percent and 14 percent, respectively.
The same cannot be said when we talk about tablets, as the tablet market is declining in terms of shipment. Apple and Samsung dominate the tablet market with roughly 46 percent share, combined, with shipments totaling at 13.3 million and 8.9 million respectively. The overall shipments in the EMEA region fell by 11 percent year on year — Middle East and Asia saw a rise, but it wasn’t enough to write off the poor figures for the European region, resulting a double figure decline.
“A slowdown in the pace of innovation is creating an issue for tablet vendors. The tablet market has quickly found itself in the same position the notebook market was in some years ago, with minimal increases in hardware performance forming the basis for an argument to upgrade,” said Canalys Senior Analyst Tim Coulling. “But when considering the most common tasks that tablets are asked to perform, the need for more horsepower is often not evident. Vendors will need to work harder to give reasons to upgrade if things are to improve in Q3. In addition, as smart phone screen sizes increase, the potential for such products to disrupt the market for 7″ tablets is also increasing.”
Coming over to the third category: notebooks. The shipments remained flat with OEMs shipping almost 49.1 million units, surpassing tablets for the first time since the third quarter of 2013. The report further mentions that the shipments rose in North America and EMEA region by 13 percent and 8 percent, respectively, when compared with the same quarter last year. The interesting bit is that Chromebooks are also gaining traction in the education sector, as well as the general consumers, especially in the US.
We may see many new tablets see the light of the day in the third quarter. Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 models also went on sale in the US and Canada, with Apple expected to refresh its tablet portfolio later this fall. So, the third quarter may turn out to be a little better for the tablet market, but we’re not really confident about how the notebooks will perform. If priced correctly, they could, once again, surpass tablets. What’s your say on this?
Further reading: Canalys, Chromebook, Microsoft
