Worldwide tablet shipment growth slowed in Q2 2013, with year-on-year sales growth of the Apple iPad falling 14 per cent.
According to International Data Corporation's (IDC)Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker, tablet shipments "finally" experienced a sequential decline as total volumes fell 9.7 per cent from Q1 2013.
However, the 45.1 million units shipped in Q2 were up 59.6 per cent from the same quarter in 2012, when tablet vendors shipped 28.3 million devices.
The news comes as fresh research from Forrester suggests that one in eight people will own a tablet device by 2017 (60 per cent of US citizens and 42 per cent of Europeans). This equates to 905 million tablet users globally.
Apple's iPad saw a lower-than-predicted shipment total of 14.6 million units for the quarter, down from 19.5 million in Q1 2013.
In years past, Apple has launched a new tablet heading into the second quarter, but this year it's expected to launch a new tablet product in the second half of the year.
"A new iPad launch always piques consumer interest in the tablet category and traditionally that has helped both Apple and its competitors," said Tom Mainelli, Research Director, Tablets at IDC. "With no new iPads, the market slowed for many vendors, and that's likely to continue into the third quarter.
"However, by the fourth quarter we expect new products from Apple, Amazon, and others to drive impressive growth in the market."
Ryan Reith, Program Manager for IDC's Mobility Tracker programs, added: "The tablet market is still evolving and vendors can rise and fall quickly as a result.
"Apple aside, the remaining vendors are still very much figuring out which platform strategy will be successful over the long run. To date, Android has been far more successful than the Windows 8 platform. However, Microsoft-fueled products are starting to make notable progress into the market."

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