Western European Tablet Market Almost Returning to Growth in 2Q17

Western European Tablet Market Almost Returning to Growth in 2Q17
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According to the latest figures published by IDC, the tablet market in Western Europe posted just a 0.5% YoY contraction. In total, 7.0 million devices were shipped in the region, which shows an almost complete recovery of the market in the region.

Apple's new tablets and the improvement of the macroeconomic situation in several countries were some of the drivers for 2017Q2 and were key to the further stabilization of the consumer segment. In general, detachables remained positive with 1.0% YoY growth and slate tablets showed resilience with a decrease of just 1.0% YoY. Overall, the commercial segment performed positively with 2.8% YoY growth. This was mainly driven by Apple and Android-based detachables, which grew 29.3% and 34.9% YoY respectively.

"Detachables are showing particularly strong growth within the corporate business, facilitated by the introduction of more commercially oriented models. These models are geared toward operating primarily as a portable PC with the secondary benefit of a tablet, helping to compete against the growing commercial trend toward the adoption of convertibles," said Liam Hall, research analyst, IDC Western European Personal Computing Devices.

On the other hand, although remaining negative, the consumer segment showed better results after a couple of years of dramatic declines. This was due mainly to the release of the new iPad, which was launched with an attractive price point and pushed users to renew their devices. It led to Apple slate tablets growing 27.0% YoY and stabilized the segment, with the YoY decline at just 1.0%.

The back-to-school period in some countries, especially in the Nordics, bolstered the market in the public space, with growth of 37.0%. In the private sector, Android-based devices played well in both SMBs and large enterprises, with total growth of 16.2%.

Apple ranked first with 27.0% market share and growth of 12.0% thanks to the release of the new iPad and iPad Pro. The price positioning of the new iPad encouraged users to renew devices and that, combined with the innovation of the new iPad Pro, enabled the company to grow strongly.

Samsung ranked second, recording a market share of 23.4% and growing at 8.6% YoY. This was driven by growth of the Galaxy Tab S2 and the new Galaxy Book detachable, but slate tablets made the largest contribution to volume after showing signs of recovery.

Lenovo gained 1.2% market share YoY to reach 8.9%, with solid growth of 15.8% YoY. This was driven mainly by the strong performance of the Android-based slate tablets, especially in the SMB segment. Amazon was in fourth place, due to its portfolio of new slate tablets and by expanding its Alexa service to the U.K. Ahead of Prime Day, growth remained negative (-11.1% YoY) with a market share of 4.4%. Huawei continued to grow, with market share of 3.9% and 23.5% growth YoY, enabling it to enter the 5 top thanks to its mobile broadband enabled devices.

Top 5 Companies: Western Europe 2017Q2 (000 Units)

Company

2016Q2 Shipments

2017Q2 Shipments

2016Q2 Share

2017Q2 Share

YoY Growth

Apple

1,699

1,902

24.0%

27.0%

12.0 %

Samsung

1,516

1,647

21.4%

23.4%

8.6%

Lenovo

542

628

7.7%

8.9%

15.8%

Amazon

346

308

4.9%

4.4%

-11.1%

Huawei

222

274

3.1%

3.9%

23.5%

Others

1,547

1,547

38.9%

32.4%

-17.2%

Total

2,751

2,278

100.0%

100.0%

-0.5%

Source: IDC