Tablet sales continue to tank hard

New figures from DigiTimes Research reveal sales of tablet computers continue to tank hard. In the first quarter of this year, sales came in at 33 million units, down 28.2 percent versus the previous quarter and 14.9 percent versus the year-before period. The report says the new tablets from Apple couldn't reverse the trend:

The sharp tablet sales decline came despite Apple launching new iPads for 2018, as Apple has failed to offer sharp price cuts in accordance with market expectations. Apple launched education-use iPads in the first quarter at a unit price of US$299, which come with Apple Pencil and software offering free learning resources and teaching instructions.

More pain is ahead as second quarter sales are anticipated to drop to a new low of 31.06 million units. The agency predicts branded tablet sales will fall 2.7 percent quarter-over-quarter, while tablets from white-box makers are expected to drop 6.24 percent.

Most new tablets these days are 9.7-inch or bigger products. Shipments of 7-inchers and 8-inchers have declined steadily.