The tablet market “collapsed” last year, and demand will continue to be slow in 2015, according to Gartner.
The research firm expects sales to grow just 8% in 2015 to 233 million units, a far cry from the double-digit growth rates of the last two years.
“The collapse of the tablet market in 2014 was alarming,” Gartner research director Rankit Atwal said.
“The steep drop can be explained by several factors. One is that the lifetime of tablets is being extended - they are shared out amongst family members and software upgrades, especially for iOS devices, keep the tablets current.”
Another factor influencing the decline is a lack of hardware innovation which is preventing consumers from upgrading, he added.
Gartner meanwhile expects the global mobile phone market to grow 3.7% in 2015, and reach 2 billion units in 2016, with smartphone sales increasingly substituting for feature phones.
Within the smartphone market, sales are being polarized at the high-end and at the low-end, with the midrange market continuing to shrink.