IDC: Worldwide Tablet Growth Hits The Brakes, Slowing To Low Single Digits In The Coming Years

In a report published Thursday, The International Data Corporation (IDC) lowered its five-year forecast outlook for worldwide tablet shipments following the first year-over-year decline in worldwide tablet shipments in the fourth quarter of 2014.

"Despite the growing popularity of phablets, there still remains a portion of the market that wants to use a larger device so they can tailor their experience to the appropriate screen size," said Jitesh Ubrani, Senior Research Analyst, Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker in a press release. "Meanwhile, an increasing number of vendors behind small tablets are reducing prices and adopting features like voice calling to entice consumers to purchase their products over competing phablets, making the dynamics of phablets vs voice-capable tablets an interesting one to watch."

IDC estimated that worldwide shipments are expected to rise a "modest" 2.1 percent in 2015, reaching 234.5 million units.

Android is expected to remain the leader throughout 2015, with close to two-thirds of the market. "Once-upon-a-time-leader" iOS is expected to be the "weakest link" as IDC is projecting Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) share in the market to decline in 2015 to 25.6 percent from 27.6 percent in 2014, marking levels below that of the past three years.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is the smallest piece of the pie in 2015 with a projected 7.0 percent market share, although this is an improvement from its 5.1 percent share in 2014.

2019 Outlook: Microsoft Continues To Take Share

By 2019, Android is expected occupy a 62.9 percent market share versus Apple's estimated 23.0 percent share.

IDC added that Microsoft will see its market share expand to 14.1 percent in 2019 as the company is "doing a lot of good things right now" and the launch of Windows 10 will have a "significant impact" on its share of both the tablet market and the industry as a whole.