IDC Numbers Show Q4 2013 Growth For Tablets But Tips Market Is Going To Slow

IDC has offered up its numbers for the tablet market for the fourth quarter of 2013. The market continued to grow in Q4 2013 with global tablet shipments hitting 76.9 million units. IDC says that represents a growth rate of 62.4% compared to the previous quarter.

The Q4 2013 numbers are also a nice bump from the number of tablets shipped in Q3 2013 with a growth rate of 28.2%. Those numbers certainly represent nice growth for the tablet market, but they do show things are starting to slow. The year over year, growth rates for the same quarter of 2012 were significantly higher.

The year over year growth for the previous year was 87.1% and IDC says that the slowing growth rate for year over year gains is a clear indication that the tablet market is slowing down. Part of the reason for the slowing tablet market is that markets like the US are becoming saturated.

IDC notes that developing markets continues to grow significantly, but the growth in those markets is unable to sustain the high year over year growth rates seen in the past. IDC shows that Apple was the leader in tablets for the quarter shipping 26 million units. Samsung was in second place with Amazon in third. The total number of tablets shipped globally during the quarter was 217.1 million units, up from 144.2 million units in 2012.

SOURCE: IDC