Reports about tablet devices being weak in sales have gone around the internet for the past couple of months. And to keep the market interested in new tablets, tech companies have to constantly innovate and add features so that customers will be interested in getting themselves new models. These days, top companies such as Apple and Microsoft have continued to unveil new tablets, and it looks like the market is still promising.

But while this appears to be the case, Taiwanese IC designers claim that the demands for the tablet device continue to be low and weak. According to a report from Digitimes, more and more customers prefer larger handsets over new tablet models. The sources say that the market for the device is very likely to decline by 10 to 20 percent in the coming years.

The weak demands have prompted chip suppliers to phase out their IC tablets, and more and more suppliers are doing the same over the past few months. Also projected is a decrease in unit shipment of Android tablets, which the sources predicted will fall to less than 160 million units next year. In the coming years, tablet shipment sees further decline to about 120-130 million unit shipment.

International vendors have also left the tablet market because lowering prices to increase sales will yield them more losses instead of revenues. Competition among chip makers and manufacturers is also tight, and pricing competition for the chips is also intense. This adds to the problem of the tablet as a marketable device.

The tablet is also not as easily replaceable as the smartphone, and many tablet users are still contented with their devices by the time a company releases another model of the device. So for now, tech companies will only be able to count on how they interest their customers to buy their new tablets.

Recently, Apple has launched the iPas Air 2, and Microsoft has released the Surface Pro 4. The market has a lot of competition, but who buys what and how many and how often are the questions.