Tablet shipments to flatten and fall
 

Research on the global tablet market appear to indicate that shipments will stay flat in this quarter but will be down 10 percent from the same period last year.

And Apple iPads will fall by 30 percent in the second quarter of this year, with shipments of only 9.8 million units, according to Digitimes Research.

The research outfit estimates shipments of non-Apple branded products will be approximately 19 million units with Samsung trying to bridge the distance between it and the Cupertino giant.

That leaves the so-called “white box” manufacturers – many of them based in China. They are expected to ship 20 million units in the second quarter.

Lenovo has started to ship its cheap Mediatek tablet this quarter. Digitimes Research said that Asustek will see shipments fall – partly because Intel has cut subsidies and because there are problems with its SoFIA 3G-R system on a chip (SoC).

Most pundits agree that shipments of tablets are in decline because it is a more or less mature market, and the replacement cycle is slow.

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