Tablet sales see biggest ever drop in Brazil

The tablet market in Brazil has seen its biggest-ever sales drop in the second quarter of this year with a 32% decrease in relation to Q2 2019, according to data from analyst firm IDC.

This is the biggest ever drop in sales of tablets since 2016, the research company said, based on quarterly trackers on tablet sales it was published since 2010. Between April and June, 477.377 tablets were sold in Brazil, meaning a 29.2% drop in relation to the first three months of 2020.

According to IDC, the Brazilian tablet market was experiencing a decrease in sales in previous years, though not quite as severe: in Q2 2019 the drop was 7.6%, in 2018 the decrease in sales was 3.4%, and in 2017, it was 8%.

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The decline of tablet sales in Brazil started in 2015, also in the second quarter when sales dropped by 35%, according to IDC. Since then, the market has had a slight reaction, but the trend is negative overall. The decline follows a tablet fever that started in Brazil in 2013, which led to tablets surpassing sales of desktops as well as notebooks for the first time.

"Sales increased with school back in January and the rise of distance education with [the Covid-19 outbreak] in March but consumption levels didn't hold in the following months and the pace of decline should continue", says Rodrigo Okayama Pereira, market analyst at IDC Brazil.

Prices, on the other hand, are still high. According to the IDC tracker for Q2 2020, the average ticket of the tablet in the 2nd quarter was 971.56 reais (US$ 180,29), up 44.7% on Q2 2019, and 47.4% more than in the first three months of the year.

"The market has increasingly pointed towards a change in the product mix, with intermediate and premium tablets becoming more relevant in terms of market participation", says IDC's Pereira, adding that the uptick in sales of higher-spec tablets also reflected in the increase in the average price.

Of all the 477.377 tablets sold in the second quarter of 2020, 438,412 went to end consumers, down 32.3% compared to the first quarter of the year. Conversely, 38,965 devices were purchased by corporate buyers. This segment saw growth in sales of 47.3% in the second quarter, driven by premium tablets and projects within the education and government sectors.