As tablet shipment growth for 2014 is expected to only reach less than 5%, and Apple's iPad sales also declined 16% sequentially in the first quarter, the IT industry is gradually turning conservative about tablet's future, according to sources from the upstream supply chain. Several first- and second-tier vendors have significantly reduced the number of new projects and order volumes for tablets, and turned to focus on wearable devices.

The sources pointed out that tablets are gradually being replaced by large-size smartphones. Since their performances and functions are also far weaker than notebooks, the tablet industry is currently seeing fierce price competition. US$299 tablets can hardly attract consumers and therefore are forcing vendors such as Asustek Computer and Lenovo to join the sub-US$199 segment

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