Strong sales of larger-screened handsets like phablets are still expected to eat into tablet manufacturers' production numbers this year. Tablet vendors have been conservative in their forecasts and companies like Samsung have been reducing their orders with the supply chain. After all, if you're going to produce fewer tablets, you don't need as many parts as you originally thought. Thus, the supply chain is also expecting orders to fall below the amount seen last year.
Tablet shipments won't bottom out until 2016
Last month, well-connected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that
he expects shipments of the Apple iPad to decline 30% this year. Apple introduced it's first phablet last year, the 5.5-inch
Apple iPhone 6 Plus. It also raised the screen size of its flagship model, the
Apple iPhone 6, to 4.7-inches from the 4-inch glass used on the
Apple iPhone 5s and
Apple iPhone 5c.
China's supply chain is considered to be more prepared to handle the decline in tablet shipments than its Taiwan based counterparts. The former has lowered its prices to attract manufacturers looking to cut back on costs. Based on one published report, tablet shipments will decline 11.8% this year to 221.4 million units. This same analysis shows tablet shipments continuing to decline until the bottom is hit in 2016.
source:
DigiTimes
