For the first time since its birth in 2010, the worldwide tablet market has seen a year-over-year decline in shipments. Only 76.1 million devices were shipped in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2014; a decline of 3.2 percent over the year-ago quarter.

These numbers are according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker, released on Monday.

Apple Inc. came out in the number one position with 21.4 million iPads shipped, making up more than a quarter of the market at a 28.1 percent share. Apple has lost some momentum with iPad sales with a 17.8 percent year-over-year decline. The IDC report cites cannibalization at the bottom from the popular, larger-screen, iPhone 6 range as a “serious issue for the iPad.”

Apple sold a record 74.5 million iPhones during the quarter ending December 27, 2014; a number largely made up of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models.

“Although Apple expanded its iPad lineup by keeping around older models and offering a lower entry price point of $249, it still wasn’t enough to spur iPad sales given the excitement around the launch of the new iPhones,” said Jitesh Ubrani, Senior Research Analyst, Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker.

Samsung Co. Ltd., in the number two spot, shipped 11 million units, showing a year-over-year decline of 18.4 percent for Q4. Samsung did however manage to show growth of 1.1 percent at a total of 40 million tablets shipped for 2014. Samsung’s Q4 market share sits at 17.2 percent vs. Apple’s 33.1 percent.

“Samsung’s struggles continued as low-cost vendors are quickly proving that mid- to high-priced Android tablets simply aren’t cut out for today’s tablet market,” said Ubrani.

Rounding out the top five manufactures by Q4 market share are: Lenovo, ASUS and Amazon with 4.8 percent, 4 percent and 2.3 percent respectively.

Lenovo is the only vendor that showed year-over-year growth. According to IDC, Lenovo’s portfolio depth benefitted them. They are the only vendor with model ranges in most screen sizes and that supports both Android and Windows. This, IDC says, caters to the end user shift to larger screen sizes and a trend toward utilizing productivity features offered by Windows.

Amazon was the biggest loser by far. The online retailer recorded a decline in holiday sales of its Kindle Fire range of almost 70 percent compared to 2013.

In spite of the Q4 decline, overall shipments for 2014 totaled 229.6 million units, an increase of 4.4 percent over 2013.

“Despite an apparent slow-down of the market, we maintain our forecast about tablet growth in 2015,” said Jean Philippe Bouchard, Research Director, Tablets. “Microsoft’s new OS, a general shift towards larger screen form factor and productivity focused solutions, and technology innovations such as gesture interface that could be introduced in tablets will help the market maintain positive growth in 2015.”

photo credit: iPad Air 2 via photopin cc