Total worldwide shipments of tablets as well as 2-in-1 devices stood at 76.1 million in Q4, 2014, down 3.2% compared to the 78.6 million figure registered in the year ago quarter, according to a latest report from market research firm IDC.

This is significant given the fact that this is the first time that tablet shipments have declined since the market's inception in 2010.

As for tablet manufacturers, all major vendors saw their shipments decline – at 21.4 million units, Apple iPad’s shipments were down 17.8% year-on-year, while Samsung saw its tablet shipments decline by 18.4% to 11 million units.

While Asus also saw its shipments decline 25%, worst hit was Amazon, whose shipments tumbled a whopping 70% to 1.7 million units. Among the top five vendors, Lenovo was the only company which wasn’t in red – its tablet shipments increased 9.1% year-over-year to 3.7 million units.

IDC says part of the problem is that the tablet market relies mostly on Apple and Samsung. "Although Apple expanded its iPad lineup by keeping around older models and offering a lower entry price point of $249, it still wasn't enough to spur iPad sales given the excitement around the launch of the new iPhones,” said Jitesh Ubrani, Senior Research Analyst, Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker. "Meanwhile, Samsung's struggles continued as low-cost vendors are quickly proving that mid- to high-priced Android tablets simply aren't cut out for today's tablet market."

Despite the decline in the fourth quarter, the report notes that shipments for the full year 2014 increased 4.4%, totaling 229.6 million units.

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Motorola shipped more than 10 million smartphones during the last quarter that ended on December 31, 2014. Lenovo Group announced the achievement in its third quarter earnings report for the fiscal 2015.

Shipments of Motorola smartphones are up a whopping 118% on an annual basis. The Chicago-based company added a $1.9 billion to the revenue of Lenovo Mobile Business Group.

Overall, sales of Lenovo Mobile Business Group were $3.4 bullion. However, the pre-tax income of the division came in at a negative $89 million. Lenovo announced that Motorola is on track to become profitable within 4-6 quarters after the acquisition.

Adding Motorola to its portfolio made Lenovo “a truly global player.” The Chinese giant is the third largest smartphone vendor with 6.6% market share.

Thanks to solid performance from its PC and server businesses, Lenovo recorded a consensus-beating $14.1 billion of revenue. The company’s Q3 pre-tax income before non-cash M&A-related accounting charges rose 8% to $348 million.

This year promises to be even better for Motorola, as the company is about to reenter the Chinese market. Earlier today, we found out that the Moto X (2014) has raked in 1 million pre-orders in only a few days….

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Apple iOS 8.2 beta 5 is now seeding to registered developers. The 258MB large update is available over-the-air or through the iOS Dev Center.

The latest iOS developer build brings bug fixes and improvements. Version 8.2 is going to be a major release when it goes live because it will bring support for Apple Watch to the platform.

Speaking of Apple Watch, the icon for the wearable’s companion iPhone app made the rounds on Twitter as did the settings screen for the device. Details on the application leaked out last month.

The Apple Watch settings screen is showcased in the device’s human interface guidelines page. See it below.

The Apple Watch settings app (click to enlarge)

Last week, Tim Cook announced that the Apple Watch will become available in April. Apple will probably release iOS 8.2 around that time as well. The Cupertino giant just outed iOS 8.1.3 last week.

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