Convertibles and 2-in-1 tablets are still in demand, says IDC

Tablets have seen a decline in adoption, but if you notice the past 2 years saw a constant demand for convertible and 2-in-1 tablet form factor. Microsoft's Surface Pro, Apple's iPad Pro and just last week we saw Samsung's range of new tablets that bundled with a keyboard case.Market analysis firm IDC just released some data around the category and says that consumers still have quite a bit of interest in detachable tablets and convertible notebooks. This is despite the drop in shipments in the last quarter and IDC predicts that the 2-in-1 and detachable tablet category could slow down the decline of the overall PC market by the year 2021.No doubt that there has been a decline, but it hasn't been as bad as it was expected. In fact, commercial notebook shipments grew more than 2 percent year over year while consumer notebook shipments dropped by just 1 percent compared to last year. IDC says that it was due to strong model launches in the ultraslim and convertible notebook categories.The tablet market is not looking good though as shipments continue to decline in the fourth quarter. It doesn't come as a surprise since consumers are only consuming high-end tablets from Apple and Microsoft, which usually follow a fixed launch cycle. Since there hasn't been a product refresh, there has been a year-over-year decline of 26.1 percent for detachables in Q4 2016. While it seems that the segment will survive for long, IDC believe that there will be growth over the next five years due to the growing popularity of detachable devices."Regardless of what marketers are saying, detachable tablets are simply not putting pressure on notebooks yet," said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst, Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. "Consumers are just starting to graduate from old, consumption-based, slate tablets to a more productive detachable tablet. At the same time, the benefits of having a thin, touch-sensitive, productivity-based machine is shining light on the traditional PC category, causing vendors and consumers to focus on more premium devices in the Convertible and Ultraslim space."