Apple's (AAPL) iPad business shrank at roughly twice the rate of the overall tablet market in the fourth quarter, research firms IDC and Strategy Analytics reported Monday.
IDC said Apple's tablet shipments fell 24.8% to 16.1 million units in the fourth quarter. The total tablet market declined 13.7% in Q4 to 65.9 million units, it said.
For the full year, Apple iPad shipments dropped 21.8% to 49.6 million units, while the overall tablet market dipped 10.1% to 206.8 million units.
Strategy Analytics said Apple's iPad shipments declined 25% in Q4 vs. a drop of 11% for the total tablet market.
Apple maintained its lead in the tablet market, but its market share declined to 24.5% in Q4 from 28.1% a year earlier, IDC reported.
Samsung was in second place last quarter with 13.7% market share, followed by Amazon.com (AMZN) (7.9%), Lenovo (4.8%) and Huawei (3.4%).
Amazon increased its tablet shipments in Q4 by 175.7% to 5.2 million units in Q4. The e-commerce leader went after value seekers with its low-cost Fire tablets, which start at $49.99 for a 7-inch model.
Tablet sales have been hit by the growth of two-in-one notebook PCs with screens that detach to work as tablets, IDC analysts said in a press release. Microsoft (MSFT) has led the market for such devices with its Surface devices, but Apple joined the party in November with the iPad Pro.
Sales of two-in-one detachable tablets "reached an inflection point in 2015," Strategy Analytics analyst Eric Smith said in a statement.
Apple is expected to introduce its next-generation tablet, the iPad Air 3, at a press event in March, BGR reported Monday. The new tablet is rumored to have a four-speaker design, an LED flash, faster processor, better display and perhaps support for the Apple Pencil introduced with the iPad Pro, BGR said.
