So did “Two-and-a-Half Men” star Ashton Kutcher deliver some “pop” for Lenovo tablet sales?

Not yet anyway – or if he did, the impact is fading based on Lenovo’s sales.

Some local media are trumpeting Lenovo’s growing market share in the global tablet market. Don’t be mislead.

Lenovo is in trouble just like Apple, Samsung and others.

The entire tablet market itself is in decline with Lenovo a distant third behind No. 1 Apple and No. 2 Samsung. Tablet shipments are down 7 percent from a year ago.

In fact, Lenovo sales are down sharply from just six months ago despite all the hype surrounding Ashton Kutcher’s hiring as a Lenovo engineer.

They are FLAT compared to the first quarter of 2015.

The latest table sales tracker report from research firm IDC points out that tablet sales have declined for three consecutive quarters. In face, earlier this year IDC noted that tablet shipments declined year-over-year for the first time in 2014.

Lenovo, which operates its global executive headquarters in Morrisville, is barely treading water despite investing heavily in new tablets such as the highly touted Yogas touted by Hollywood heartthrob Kutcher.

For the second quarter of this year, Lenovo tablet sales did increase slightly to 2.5 million from 2.4 million a year ago. Its market share improved to 5.7 percent from 4.9 percent.

The growth rate is 6.8 percent. Not bad. If the U.S. GDP would grow at that rate, we’d have full employment in almost no times.

However, in the fourth quarter of 2014, Lenovo sales were 3.7 million.

Plus, overall tablet sales across the industry fell in the second quarter.

So what’s going on?

“Longer life cycles, increased competition from other categories such as larger smartphones, combined with the fact that end users can install the latest operating systems on their older tablets has stifled the initial enthusiasm for these devices in the consumer market,” said Jitesh Ubrani, Senior Research Analyst for Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers.

However, he does see hope.

“But with newer form factors like 2-in-1s, and added productivity-enabling features like those highlighted in iOS9, vendors should be able to bring new vitality to a market that has lost its momentum,” Ubrani said.

And Lenovo does offer 2-in-1s with detachable screens.

While Apple (-18 percent) and Samsung (-12 percent) suffered far greater losses, the fact remains Lenovo is barely holding its own in a dwindling market.

Similar comments could be made about Lenovo’s showing in the global PC market. It continues to increase sales and drive up market share at the expense of rivals.

So hold off on the cheerleading. Lenovo has its hands full in finding ways to make tablets a bigger “player” in its bid to become a dominant technology company across the field of Internet-connected devices.

It’s struggles in smartphones (particularly in China) also triggered a big shakeup in management of that group even as Lenovo Motorola prepared for the roll-out of new, more personalized phones this week.

Yes, Lenovo overall continues to grow. But don’t think for a moment the company doesn’t have plenty of challenges to address.

For the full IDC tablet report, visit:

http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS25811115