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Consumers have officially fallen out of love with tablets and are having their heads turned by larger smartphones and more powerful 2-in-1 devices instead.
Everyone laughed when Microsoft unveiled the first Surface Pro and claimed that the future was in touch screen PCs, not tablets. But the latest data from Strategy Analytics, published Thursday, shows that Microsoft was clearly on to something.
In the first quarter of 2016, global tablet sales fell a further 10 percent. Just 46.5 million devices were shipped — the lowest recorded amount in more than three years. Apple, Samsung and Lenovo have all seen the popularity of their devices slide, yet at the same time, devices running Windows are on the upswing. Shipments grew 82 percent year-on-year and now these tablets — essentially touchscreen PCs — have a 13 percent market share, which is impressive considering that the iPad’s share is currently 22 percent.