Tablet sales continue to struggle after seeing an 8.5% drop in Q1 2017

There’s a reason why you don’t see much content regarding tablets from us here at Phandroid, and this due to the decreasing popularity. The trend has been moving downwards for quite some time, and a new report only confirms everyone’s suspicions.

Huawei MediaPad M3

According to a report by IDC, tablet sales dropped by an average of 8.5% across the board, even affecting the likes of Apple and Samsung. Meanwhile, Huawei was one of driving forces behind keeping that percentage from dropping even lower.

Huawei saw an increase of 31.7%, after shipping 2.7 million tablets in Q1 2017, compared to the 2 million units shipped in Q1 2016. This was helped by the launch of the new MediaPad M3 which was launched late last year.

Samsung has recently launched the Galaxy Tab S3, and we are seeing rumors of a new productivity-focused tablet from Motorola. Hopefully, these OEM’s can identify what the markets and turn things around, and maybe a focus on productivity could be the key.

This could especially ring true if Google continues to see issues with getting Android Apps onto Chromebooks, as your tablet could be a more viable option. 2017 is going to be an interesting year for tablets, but I’m ready to sit back and see how everything falls out.