Tablets get a pre-yuletide boost

Distribution has been given a pre-Christmas boost on the tablet front with the hardware enjoying strong sales in October ahead of Black Friday and the festive season.

Figures from Context indicated that across Western Europe volume sales of tablets were up by 21% in October year-on-year challenging those that have argued the form factor is out of favour.

Distribution can thank Huawei for a lot of the activity with the vendor driving sales in its efforts to take market share from the established players.

Apple remains number one, with volumes climbing by 4%, but Huawei overtook Samsung to climb into second place with 221% growth yoy.

The hardware is appealing to the retail and etail markets with Black Friday and Christmas stoking up demand and the need to bring in more product. But the analyst house also charted increased in those channels selling into business customers.

“Tablet sales through Western European distributors picked up in Q2 2018 following a long period of decline”, said Marie-Christine Pygott, senior analyst at Context.

“More recent growth has mostly been driven by the top three vendors, as many top-tier PC manufacturers and smaller vendors have left the segment or reduced their focus on tablet innovation and marketing," she added.

The UK was among the best performing countries in October with 21.3% increases in unit growth. Italy was the standout with 47.7% and Poland was the weakest with a 21.5% decline.

Although tablets have taken a bit of a bashing as a corporate tool, there are signs that when given the choice employees might look at adopting the hardware in a corporate environment.

Recent research from Econocom, indicated that a healthy number of staff (62%) wanted to choose their own devices and it was important for firms looking to attract and retain talent to be flexible.

“Workplace technology is more important to employees than ever before, and these findings really reflect that. Not only do they shine a light on how important it can be from a productivity perspective, but it also emphasises its often-overlooked role in boosting motivation and morale among staff. Businesses today could do far worse than to look at their own workplace technology and consider the wider impact this might be having on their employees," said Chris Labrey, managing director of Econocom UK & I.