IDC’s Tablets and Chromebooks Full-Year 2022 and Fourth Quarter 2022 Market Report is here, and the results aren’t ideal. Overall, the tablet market shrank by 3.3% for all of 2022, but grew flat by 0.3% for the fourth quarter of the same year. After a strong 2021 year with insane 180.5% growth, however, the Chromebook market was set to normalize and reported a 48% drop in shipments for full year 2022 and 24.3% less than units in the fourth quarter of 2022.
The main market movers in 2022, as usual, were Apple and Samsung. Apple still leads with 49.2% market share in Q4 and 38% in 2022, followed by Samsung with nearly 16.8% and 18.6%, respectively. For 2022, Apple was the only OEM to post modest 7% growth for 2022, while for the fourth quarter, the company posted impressive 28.8% year-over-year growth, while Samsung posted a modest increase in sales of 7.1% for the same period.
Amazon, Huawei, and Lenovo all posted negative growth for both periods, and market analysts believe vendors should appeal to the mainstream consumer for long-term gains going forward. That’s why some new players, like Oppo and Xiaomi, have introduced a handful of mid-range tablets in 2022. This is especially true in tough economic times, when users think twice before opting for higher spec tablets and find hard to justify premium purchases. .
As far as the Chromebook market is concerned, a great year 2021 makes 2022 look bad, but in reality, while demand has dropped significantly, inventory accumulation is starting to decline. This will be especially true with the upcoming ‘back to school season’.
Unfortunately, analysts expect any advances made by Chromebooks outside the education sector to decline over the course of 2023 as demand for such devices isn’t very popular outside of education. PCs will continue to reign in the rest of the segments.
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