The growth in tablet sales is facing a “massive deceleration” this year, according to a new report from research firm International Data Corporation (IDC). The report shows that year-over-year growth of the worldwide tablet market is slowing to 7.2%, down from 52.5% in 2013.

The main culprit behind this is declining sales of Apple Inc.’s iPad, with 2014 set to be the first full year of decline for iPad sales, IDC said. The report also noted that device lifecycles for tablets continue to lengthen, ever more approaching those of PCs rather than smartphones.

“In the early stages of the tablet market, device lifecycles were expected to resemble those of smartphones, with replacement occurring every 2-3 years,” said Ryan Reith, a program director for IDC, in a statement. “What has played out instead is that many tablet owners are holding onto their devices for more than 3 years and in some instances more than 4 years,” he said.

What is causing us to hold onto our tablets for longer? “We believe the two major drivers for longer than expected tablet lifecycles are legacy software support for older products, especially within iOS, and the increased use of smartphones for a variety of computing tasks,” Mr. Reith stated.

The IDC report further bolsters last month’s Gartner Inc. report for Q3 and annual figures for device sales worldwide (including smartphones, tablets, and PC’s of all sizes), which showed tablet sales slowing dramatically with only an 11% increase in sales since 2013–a huge decrease from 2013, which saw a growth of 55%.

Looking at the IDC numbers, it appears Android tablets are propping the market up. Sales for iPads will fall by 12.7 percent in 2014, down to 64.9 million units, while sales of Android tablets will grow by 16 percent to 159.5 million units shipped.

The big winner in 2014, according to the IDC’s numbers, is Windows tablets, which will see growth of 67.7 percent for this year. It’s not much reason for celebration though as only 10.9 million units are forecast to ship, representing a meager 4.6 percent market share of a total 235.7 million tablets forecast to ship by the end of 2014.

Looking at the future, the IDC report noted a few “unknowns” that could impact tablet shipments, such as: “the industry reaction to Windows 10; what Google does in this space with Android and Chrome OS; and Apple’s rumored product line expansion.”

The IDC has not forecast a bright future for Apple’s iPad. The report shows a negative compound annual growth rate for iPad sales between 2014 and 2018 at -1.1 percent. In comparison it predicts 5.9 percent for Android tablets and 38.1 percent for Windows tablets over the same period.

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