Tablets, which had seemed like such wonderful products when Apple first launched the iPad in 2010 – not so long ago – now seem to be diminishing in popularity. Are large smartphones to blame? Or the fact that devices are tending to be a mix of laptops and tablets?
If people had a choice of hybrid laptop-tablets, they would probably buy them more readily than they are today. It’s nice to have a device that can be picked up for a lean-back session of reading, watching movies, browsing or playing a game or two and then clicking it into place with a keyboard and sitting up for some work. Unfortunately, the devices available are still on the expensive side and that’s keeping them from achieving booming sales of any sort.
Smartphones are, however, definitely eating into the tablet category. Smartphones with 5.5-inch displays are the norm but you also get 5.7 -inch screens commonly enough and especially large ones can be just short of the tablet crossover size of seven inches.
Slowing down fast
Globally, the International Data Corporation (IDC) shows that tablet sales are on a decline for the past nine consecutive quarters already. At the end of last year, tablets shipped went down by 20.1 per cent compared to the year before.
Cyber Media Research (CMR) says that in India, the tablet market has dipped 18 per cent over the past year and shows no sign of turning around. In the last quarter of 2016, tablets had gone down by 16 per cent compared with the same time the year before that. What’s more, fewer companies are selling tablets, having gone down from 66 to 22 companies. In India, connectivity is an important aspect and so 4G tablets have gone up 6 per cent and data bundling is probably going to be important over the rest of this year. Datawind, being a budget tablet, tops the sales chart with 34 per cent market share over 2016, beating Samsung, which has the second position with 18 per cent market share, followed by Pantel (12 per cent), Micromax (10 per cent) and iBall (nine per cent).
New pickings
Despite the slowdown, companies are launching new tablets, most of them just building on existing feature sets and specs. Recently, at the Mobile World Congress, Samsung launched no phones but three tablets. The Galaxy Tab S3 is a big upgrade from its Tab S2, a 9.7-inch tablet that has upgraded to Android 7.0 and works fast and smooth.
The Tab S3 comes with an all glass back, leaving the earlier plastic behind. The display now supports HDR video, which should make content that supports it look really good on screen. That, fuelled by the Snapdragon 820 processor and faster graphics, should make for a better viewing experience. Like the iPad Pro, the Tab S3 has four speakers for louder and more immersive sound, for which Samsung collaborated with Austrian company AKG Acoustics. A handful of tablets now work with a stylus that is customised for them including the iPad Pro line, Microsoft’s Surface products, Lenovo’s Yoga Book and now Samsung’s Tab S3. Samsung has brought the S-Pen to the tablet form before, but only briefly. This time, the new tablet has the functionality of a device from the Note line. There’s also a detachable keyboard which can quickly turn the tablet into a work device, but this is sold separately.
Samsung also launched two Windows tablets, Galaxy Books in 10 and 12-inch sizes. These go head-to-head with high-enders such as Microsoft’s Surface 4, the iPad Pro and Lenovo’s tablets. Both Galaxy Book tablets are obviously meant for professionals and can run full blown Windows applications. They come with a detachable keyboard, which you don’t have to buy separately, and include the S-Pen stylus. They run on the powerful 7th Gen Intel Core processors.
Lenovo probably has the largest number of tablet options among any of the larger companies today. Just launched is a whole series in a new line they refer to as Tab 4, which includes eight and 10-inch tablets each with a ‘Plus’ variant. The tablets have modest specifications and are likely to be in the affordable category. It is to be seen whether these accelerate the market for tablets.
No matter the state of the tablet market, Apple’s next iPads, especially the iPad Pro 2, is hotly anticipated by Apple watchers. But everything, including when these will arrive and what they will be called, is too much in the realm of the rumoured so far. People don’t update tablets, specially their iPads, every year. Working quite solidly over a span of years, they can get by very well without the user having to buy a new one. So it isn’t sure whether Apple really needs a new iPad line at present, with sales being flat. With little being known on any new technology coming in these pioneering tablets, all the discussion is about sizes and variations in specs.
(The article first appeared in The Hindu BusinessLine.)