Tablet, Chromebook Shipments Continued to Decline in Q3 Amidst Ongoing Market Headwinds

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Worldwide tablet shipments were down 8.8% year over year in the third quarter of 2022 (3Q22), totaling 38.6 million units, according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. This was the fifth straight quarter of decline for the tablet market. Chromebook shipments also struggled in 3Q22, falling to 4.3 million units and a year-over-year decline of 34.4%. Both markets have now shifted from supply constrained industries to ones that are demand challenged as consumer and education spending has slowed in the face of economic uncertainties.

Chinese vendors continue to do well in emerging markets where there is low-end demand. Sanctions from many vendors also enabled Chinese vendors like Huawei to perform well in the Russian market. Meanwhile, the emergence of low-priced Chinese OEMs like Realme, Xiaomi, Oppo and others, has fueled strong competition in the lower range devices. However, these gains still couldn't offset the decline experienced by the main tablet vendors.

"After massive growth in 2020 and 2021, a decline in the tablet market was expected in 2022. The market is now experiencing not only a slowdown in demand, but also some strong macro-economic headwinds. Even though most tablets (Android) and Chromebooks are lower cost, we're now seeing buyer concerns even at the low end. This is largely driven by these rising economic concerns," said Anuroopa Nataraj, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers. "However, tablets have found many more use cases since the pandemic, from their role in the workspace to both in-person and remote learning, entertainment, and even digital transformations across various verticals." 

"Chromebooks face a number of challenges in the industry, not all of which are because of limitations to the platform," said Ryan Reith, group vice president with IDC's Worldwide Mobile and Consumer Device Trackers. "We firmly believe Chromebooks will continue to play a fundamental role in personal computing, and ultimately grow in presence compared to other existing platforms. But the growth will continue to be tempered as the industry adapts to this new environment we are all living in. We have seen many of the large PC brands prioritize around opportunities within the Windows PC space, and without their support from the supply side the Chrome market will continue to move rather slowly."