IDC said that Apple is struggling to find anyone who wants to buy its tablet. Android tablets are dominating the market by sheer volume and even they are seening their repeat or upgrade numbers flatline.

The outfit said has been watching the gradual decline of consumer interest in tablets and notes that the traditional tablet form factor will give way to more “detachable tablets” like the Surface Pro and Surface Book.

According to IDC’s report, the sale of tablets resembling Apple’s iPad will fall this year, dropping a whole 5.9 per cent from 2015. This time last year Apple was selling 21.4 million a year and now it is expected to sell 16.1 million iPads.

On the flipside, IDC is now backing the notion that “detachable tablets” or two-in-ones will supersede the more traditional tablet form factor and give rise to consumer interest in devices such as the Surface Book or the Huawei MateBook. IDC predicts the sales of detachable tablets will balloon from the 16.6 million shipped in 2015 to 63.8 million by 2020.

What is interesting is how Apple will spin killing off the device that Steve Jobs said was "game changing" without actually having a killer app for it.

Apple’s share of the total market is slumping to around 7 per cent,  in the same timeframe. IDC predicts that without a suitable Windows-on-tablet like replacement, Windows-based tablet market share could rise upwards of 75% from where it currently resides.