Apple and Asus losing tablet market share in Western Europe
According to IDC, tablet shipments throughout Western Europe totaled 7.528 million as of Q2 2015. This is a drop of 1.2 percent from the same quarter last year where shipments totaled 7.617 million. IDC describes the trend as a stabilizing market now that sales have slowed considerably.
While demand for consumer tablets remain weak, the 2-in-1 convertible and business tablet segments have seen remarkable growth. For example, 2-in-1 devices have grown 71 percent, which IDC credits to strong sales of the Surface 3 and Surface Pro 3.
Samsung and Apple continue to dominate the market. The South Korean manufacturer has managed to overtake Apple with a high growth of 18.8 percent and a shipment volume of approximately 2 million tablet PCs. This is compared to Apple who dropped just over 12 percent and managed to "only" ship 1.87 million iPads during the same period. Lenovo is third with 394K units shipped and is just a hair above Asus who fell sharply from 556K during Q2/2014 to just 388K. Microsoft makes it to the tail-end of the top 5 through its successful Surface family and managed to ship an impressive 213K tablets during the quarter.