IDC reports global tablet shipments are to reach 211.3 million units in 2015, a -8.1% drop following 3 consecutive quarters of declining WW tablet shipments in 2015.

However, while the device category appears to be on the wane the analyst points out at least one growth opportunity-- tablets with detachable displays.

"We're witnessing a real market transition as end users shift their demand towards detachables and more broadly towards a productivity-based value proposition," IDC says. "The proliferation of detachable offerings from hardware vendors continues to help drive this switch. We're starting to see the impact of competition within this space as the major platform vendors-– Apple, Google and Microsoft-- now have physical product offerings."

According to Gartner, global combined device (PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones) shipments are to drop by -1% to 2.4 billion units-- the result of customers not replacing devices currently in use.

Such a forecast is a downgrade from previous Gartner forecasts of 1.5% growth. The analyst says shipments of all device categories other than mobile phones (set to grow by 1.5% through smartphone growth reaching 14%) will contract in 2015.

"By 2017, we estimate mobile phone shipments will reach the 2bn mark, and smartphones will represent 89% of the market," Gartner remarks.

According to Canalys Q2 2015 sees Lenovo beat Apple in PC shipments-- a position Apple has held since Q3 2014-- as the Chinese company ships 24000 more PCs than the iPad maker, taking over 15% market share.

One has to keep in mind the analyst counts tablets together with notebooks and desktops as PCs, unlike other analysts (such as Gartner and IDC) insisting tablets make a separate device category.

As such, global Q2 2015 PC (and tablet) shipments total 109.2 million units with 12% Y-o-Y declines caused by double-digit drops in desktop, notebook and tablet shipments. The vendor rankings have Lenovo followed by Apple, HP, Dell and Samsung.

Global hybrid device shipments are to reach 21.5 million in 2015 Gartner reports, a 70% increase over 2014 as customers find the combination of portability, productivity and flexibility increasingly attractive.

The "hybrid" category covers ultramobile/2-in-1 tablets and so-called hybrid ultramobiles (2-in-1 detachables and convertibles). According to the analyst hybrid utramobiles are the fastest growing mobile PC segment, with 77% shipment growth on 2015 shipments reaching 13.5m units. Meanwhile ultramobile tablet shipments should reach 8m.

Gartner adds hybrids account for 12% of 2015 mobile PC shipments, a figure set to reach 26% in 2019. The device category has seen non-stop growth since 2012, and as such 2019 sales are expected to reach 58m, up from 12.6m in 2014.