Demand for tablets is declining in Europe as new figures from market intelligence provider International Data Corporation (IDC) reins in future estimates.
For Europe and North America, IDC has forecasted growth of 0% over 2014 for tablets and two-in-one devices after recording a 25% increase in 2013.
Consumer interest has been shifting to emerging product categories such as wearables with dedicated activity tracking capabilities. The rumoured iWatch might shoulder some of the blame for stalled shipments too.
Rest of the world will step up
It may be grim news for North American and European suppliers, but Jean Philippe Bouchard, research director for tablets at IDC, says that there is much to be gained by looking outside of these two saturated regions.
“When we look at the global picture, it would be easy to say that the tablet market is slowing down. But, when we start digging into the regional dynamics, we realize that there is still a good appetite for this product category,” Bouchard explained.
“While mature markets like North America and Western Europe will combine for flat unit growth in 2014, the remaining regional markets will generate 12% unit growth over the same period.”
ASPs stabilising
Average selling prices (ASPs) are set to stabilise at the $373 mark in more mature markets, which IDC says is down to bigger screens and cellular-enabled tablets.
The trend comes to light at a time when Apple is reputedly launching a new line of larger iPads (measuring 12.9-inches) that are being targeted at Android defectors and enterprise users.
In the rest of the world, ASPs have been tipped to drop to $302, an annual decline of 10%. Meanwhile tablets with built-in voice calling over cellular networks in the Asia Pacific region have risen to 25% this quarter, a 60% annual growth rate.