Once skyrocketing tablet growth rate declining says report

The once skyrocketing sales of tablet have now seen a slowdown in its growth.

According to figures from IDC, worldwide tablet shipments had grown by 28.2 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2013, reaching 76.9 million units, PC World reported.

However, while the sales are still growing, the rate of growth has become much slower as compared in the 2012 holiday quarter, when shipments increased by 75.3 percent year-over-year.

Nearly every top tablet vendor was hit by this trend, including Apple, whose year-over-year growth was 13.5 percent, as compared to 48.1 percent in 2012.

Amazon saw a small decline in shipments according to the estimates, from 5.9 million units in 2012's fourth quarter to 5.8 million units for the same three-month period in 2013.

According to IDC, the decline is a simple matter of saturation, particularly in mature markets such as the United States.

IDC claimed that stronger growth in emerging markets were not enough to offset the end of explosive tablet growth elsewhere.