IDC: Tablet shipment growth slows to a crawl, will grow just 2% in 2015

The International Data Corporation is scaling back its expectations for tablet shipments this year.

In a new report, the corporation indicates that tablet makers will ship 234.5 million units in 2015, up only 2.1 percent from 2014. IDC first reported that tablet sales were declining in early February.

Though Android is currently the leader in number of tablets shipped, IDC expects its market share to drop. The corporation says it expects Android shipment volumes to grow marginally this year, from 154.7 million in 2014 to 158.1 million in 2015. But its expectations for 2019 are dismal. IDC predicts that Android will make 169.5 shipments in 2019, but its market share will drop to 62.9 percent from 67.3 percent in 2014.

iOS tablets are the biggest losers according to these estimates, however. IDC thinks that iOS tablets will lose traction this year, with shipment volumes declining from 63.4 million to 60.1 million in 2015. In 2019, the corporation only expects Apple to see 61.9 million tablet shipments. Furthermore, IDC says, Apple will see its market share atrophy from 27.6 percent in 2014 to 23 percent in 2019.

The only company for whom this report is not totally bleak is Windows. The report says that Windows tablet shipments will actually grow from 11.6 million in 2014 to 16.3 million this year. By 2019, IDC says, Windows tablets will be shipping a volume of 38 million. It also sees Windows tablets claiming a larger share of the market in the years to come, from 5.1 percent in 2014 to 14 percent in 2019.

“Microsoft is doing a lot of good things right now and we believe the launch of Windows 10 later this year will not only have a significant impact on Microsoft’s share of the market, but on the industry as a whole,” said Jean Philippe Bouchard, research director, tablets.

The reason tablet shipments are declining is in part due to the rise of the phablet. With an increasing number of screen display sizes availble, large phones are eating into tablet sales.