Tablet, Chromebook Shipments Decline in 1st Quarter as Peak Demand Passed

As life goes back to normal and countries try to coexist with the virus, the demand for work from the home economy brought by the pandemic has gradually cooled, market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) remarked on Tuesday (May 3). 

Global tablet PC shipments reached 38.4 million units in the first quarter, better than the pre-epidemic level, but down 3.9% year-on-year, highlighting the gradual slowdown in growth. In contrast, Chromebook shipments fell 61.9%, reaching only about 5.1 million units.  

IDC said the growth of tablet PCs has slowed down, adding that the market will gradually return to regular seasonal demand. 

In addition, the first quarter shipments showed an annual decline, reflecting that some users are still using devices purchased in 2020 and 2021, which is not conducive to the development of demand. 

Lenovo and Huawei’s shipments are down 20% among the top five brands, while Apple (AAPL-US) is also down 4.6%. 

Anuroopa Nataraj, a senior research analyst at IDC’s mobile and consumer devices research, said, global demand in the tablet market is declining due to lower demand in mature markets. 

However, smartphone providers such as realme, OPPO, and Xiaomi actively promote tablets in emerging markets and plan to use their existing channel strengths to build ecosystems. 

Chromebook shipments fell sharply to 5.1 million units in the first quarter, down 61.9% YOY, with Lenovo, Dell (DELL-US), Acer (2353-TW), HP (HP-US), and Samsung all seeing their shipments drop by more than 20% YOY. HP’s single-quarter Chromebook shipments dropped to 800,000 units, an 82.2% annual decline. 

Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for mobile and consumer devices at IDC, said that demand for Chromebooks fell sharply in the second half of last year, resulting in a backlog of inventory in recent quarters. 

Inventory is expected to be cleared in the coming months with the help of promotions, and shipments are expected to pick up gradually as the education buying cycle resumes, he added. 

Translated by DB, cnPOST