The pandemic had been a huge driver for the growth of the tablet market in the Philippines as the education sector entered hybrid learning with online classes.
Now, as restriction eases and schools resume face-to-face classes, the tablet market is starting to slow down.
Market research firm IDC said that the tablet market in the Philippines experiences an 11.6% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) decline during the third quarter of 2022.
Angela Medez, a senior market analyst at IDC Philippines, said that the market declined by 47.8% QoQ and 42.4% year-on-year (YoY) as more private and public schools “returned to physical classes as part of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) expansion of face to face classes.”
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Despite the decline, Samsung managed to reclaim the top spot by achieving a 37.7% YoY growth and owning 43.5% of the market. Samsung’s ranking was driven by the Galaxy Tab A7 Lite, its top-selling tablet, which makes up for 80% of its tablet shipments.
It is followed by Realme with a 13.9% market share, local brand Cherry Mobile with 11.2%, Huawei at 8.6%, and Lenovo at 6.4%, while the other brands who didn’t make the top 5 list collectively own 16.4% of the market.
Medez expects that the tablet market will continue to decline in 2023 as DepEd made in-person classes for public schools mandatory. Another reason is the “global headwinds hurting consumers.”
She added that even though more Chinese companies have emerged and ignited competition, it may not “offset the slowdown of the overall tablet market.”