Another set of figures on the tablet market has emerged showing a downward plunge in numbers of units shipped, with the final quarter of 2015 witnessing the worst year-on-year decline that Strategy Analytics has seen.
The company's 'Preliminary Global Tablet Shipments and Market Share by Operating System: Q4 2015' report estimates that tablet shipment numbers fell to 69.9 million units in Q4, which is a record drop of 11%. Over the full year of 2015, shipments reached 224 million units which represented a drop of 8%.
Attack of the Surface clones
Eric Smith, Senior Analyst, Tablet & Touchscreen Strategies service at Strategy Analytics, commented: "2-in-1 Detachable Tablets have reached an inflection point in 2015 as computing needs continue to trend more and more mobile and Tablets with Windows 10 can compete against iOS in the premium and high price bands and equally well against Android in the mid and lower price bands.
"The Q4 2015 launch of Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book was met with many 'Surface clones' by Microsoft's OEM partners at lower price points. This variety of devices will bolster momentum of Windows Tablets going forward."
As for overall market share, Apple was of course the top tablet vendor with a share of 23.1% in Q4 of last year – falling heavily from 27.3% the previous year. Cupertino's shipment numbers dropped from 21.4 million units to 16.1 million units this year.
Samsung was in second place with a 12.9% market share, down from 13.9% the previous year. Lenovo bucked the trend and saw growth in third place with an increase from 4.7% to a 5.7% share in Q4 2015, with Amazon slipping to fourth place, dropping from 4.9% to 4.4%.