Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Tab S3 will hit the market Thursday. It is the first new Samsung tablet PC in two years, but the prospects of the global tablet PC market are bleak due to falling demand.

The South Korean tech titan said Wednesday it will release in Korea the 9.7-inch AMOLED display tablet PC equipped with the company’s signature S Pen and four embedded stereo speakers.

The Galaxy Tab S3 was unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in February, but its official launch was strategically postponed due to the debut of Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S8 smartphone. 

However, market conditions for the device have been unfavorable. According to recent data from market intelligence firm TrendForce, global tablet shipments for the first quarter of 2017 totaled 31.95 million units, representing a steep drop of 34.5 percent from the prior quarter and a 9.3 percent decline year-on-year.

“The shipment slump was attributed to the effect of the traditional slow season and the general decline in tablet market demand,” said Anita Wang, an analyst at the firm.

Samsung’s tablet shipments for the first quarter was 6.1 million units, down 23.5 percent from the prior quarter and down 5.7 percent from a year ago, the data showed. Samsung remained behind Apple in second place with 19.1 percent of the global market.

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)