The Philippines’ tablet market is anticipated to sustain its growth this year driven by increasing demand from both the consumer and commercial segments as schools resume classes, according to the latest report by International Data Corp. (IDC).
The IDC Worldwide quarterly personal computing device tracker showed the Philippines’ tablet market grew by 40 percent year-on-year (YoY) and 22.4 percent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) in the second quarter this year as the new school year began.
Big tenders from local government units and different division offices of the Department of Education (DepEd) refueled the education segment, posting an increase of 92 percent YoY and 89 percent QoQ, respectively, with local brand Cherry Mobile accounting for more than 60 percent of this segment.
IDC’s latest data showed the country’s top tablet companies in the second quarter were Cherry Mobile with 30 percent market share, followed by Samsung with 17.8 percent; Lenovo, 15.7 percent; realme, 11.7 percent; and Huawei, 11.2 percent market share.
“With more vendors entering the tablet market plus DepEd division offices and local government units re-ordering and procuring tablets for their continuous learning plan, IDC anticipates the consumer and commercial segments to gain momentum through the end of the year,” Angela Medez, IDC Philippines senior market analyst, said in a statement.
“With Chromebooks now listed as approved devices for use in public schools and telecommunications companies investing in the infrastructure needed to support organizations in their cloud transformation journey, we may see vendors delivering ChromeOS-based devices in the near future,” said Medez.
IDC tracker products provide accurate and timely market size, vendor share and forecasts for hundreds of technology markets from more than 100 countries around the globe.
Last week, IDC said consumer spending on smartphones in the Philippines is expected to post a flat or marginal growth of 2 percent this year compared to the pre-pandemic in 2019.
Based on the IDC quarterly mobile phone tracker, smartphone shipments to the Philippines declined by 3 percent in the second quarter of the year compared to last year, although this grew 9 percent QoQ, shipping 4.3 million units in the second quarter.
“The number of smartphone shipments below $200 improved significantly QoQ, as players such as Transsion and Cherry Mobile launched new models in this segment, but remained low on an annual basis, due to low demand and supply. The number of shipments for models in the higher price categories also slowed down as consumer spending declined due to economic headwinds,” said Medez.
