IDC says that in the last quarter of 2015 over 14 million tablets were shipped to Western Europe as the market volume declined 10.1% YoY.
In value terms, however, the decline was only 1.8% YoY, thanks to growing penetration of detachable tablets boosted by an increasing supply of devices with wide-ranging specs catering for the diverse needs of consumers and professionals.
In the last quarter of the year, 2.6 million tablets with a detachable keyboard were shipped, up from just over 800,000 units a year ago, accounting now for almost 20% of the overall tablet market.
"As the detachable tablets available on the market become more powerful and better suited to business requirements, this form factor has been successfully adopted by professionals and executives as it perfectly addresses their mobility needs and is increasingly seen as a notebook replacement," said Daniel Goncalves, research analyst, IDC EMEA Personal Computing.
Microsoft established itself as the leader in this segment in 2015, but Q4 has seen Apple entering the market with the iPad Pro and quickly capturing a good share. "Several industry players have recently launched or announced new detachable designs that in 2016 will compete in the commercial space and leverage the large opportunity created by enterprise mobility," said Marta Fiorentini, research manager, IDC EMEA Personal Computing.
"The arrival in Europe of these new designs based on Windows 10 and a more powerful generation of processors should support commercial shipments in the coming quarters as IT departments focus on increased security features, application costs, and device and applications management."
A supply increase of affordable detachable tablets is also anticipated in the home segment where vendors have been adjusting their portfolios to counteract poor demand for slates. Interestingly, if the growing Windows detachable market is combined with declining sales of notebook PCs the client device in Western Europe, market would be flat.