New data presented by AksjeBloggen.com has shown that the year 2021 is expected to witness a downsizing trend in global tablet sales, with revenues falling by $2.4bn in a year.
This is after the Covid-19 lockdown measures that forced people worldwide to switch to working and educating at home, helped to grow the entire market, which generated $39.9bn in revenue last year, slightly above the 2019 levels.
Before the pandemic, tablets had been losing ground to smartphones for years in a row. In 2016, the entire market generated $44.6bn in revenue, revealed the Statista data. In the next three years, this figure plunged to $39.89bn.
However, the soaring demand for large screen devices for online education and work from home amid the lockdown slowed down the decreasing trend in the tablets segment. In 2020, revenues rose by $20 million YoY and hit $39.91bn.
However, the Statista data show global tablet revenues are expected to drop by 5.9% YoY and hit $37.5bn in 2021. The noticeable downsizing trend is set to continue in the following years, with revenues falling by another $3.2bn by 2025.
As the world’s largest tablet market, the United States is expected to generate $9.5bn in revenue this year, down from $10bn in 2020. Chinese revenues are forecast to drop by 3% YoY to $5.4bn in 2021.
Japan is set to witness the biggest drop among the top three markets, with revenues falling by 9.5% year-over-year to $2.5bn in 2021. The United Kingdom and Germany follow with $2.1bn and $2bn in revenue, respectively.
Meanwhile, Apple still the top vendor, despite the market share drop in 2020. The International Data Corporation (IDC) data show Apple remained the leading vendor in the global tablet market, with 53.2 million shipments in 2020, up from 49.9 million in 2019. However, statistics show Apple’s market share dropped to 32.5% last year, compared to 34.6% in 2019.
Samsung retained the number two position and recorded impressive 44% shipment growth last year. In 2019, the South Korean tech giant shipped 21.7 million tablets worldwide. This figure surged to 31.3 million amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Huawei hit 9.8% market share and 16 million shipments last year, up from 14.8 million in 2019.
However, Lenovo, as the fourth-largest notebook vendor globally, witnessed the most impressive sales growth amid the COVID-19 crisis. Even with the ongoing global crisis, the company shipped 14.1 million tablets in 2020, a 66% increase in a year. Also, Lenovo’s market share rose to 8.6% last year, up from 5.9% in 2019.
