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Apple’s Share of the Tablet Market Fell Last Quarter to 32.5% as the Market Swelled

The idc_q1_2014_tabletsfirst quarter of 2014 is barely over and analysts are already making guesses about the number of tablets sold.

According to the latest figures from IDC, Apple’s dominance of the global tablet slipped last quarter. The gadget maker shipped 16.4 million tablets last quarter, down from around 19 million in the same period last year. Samsung came in a not too distant second place with an estimated 11.2 million tablets shipped, and the top 5 were filled out by Asus, Lenovo, and Amazon.

The estimated number of tablets shipped last quarter was 50 million, up slightly from 48.8 million shipped in the same period in 2013. Asus shipped 2.5 million tablets during the quarter, Lenovo shipped 2.1 million, and Amazon rounded out the top five with 1 million tablets shipped.

IDC attributes the flattening of the market to phablets. "The rise of large-screen phones and consumers who are holding on to their existing tablets for ever longer periods of time were both contributing factors to a weaker-than-anticipated quarter for tablets and 2-in-1s," IDC Research Director Tom Mainelli said in a statement. "In addition, commercial growth has not been robust enough to offset the slowing of consumer shipments."

While all 5 major tablet makers saw a seasonal drop in sales compared to last quarter, Amazon showed the steepest decrease. Amazon sold an estimated 5.8 million tablets over the holiday season, but only sold 1 million tablets last quarter. Amazon is seeing a much sharper spike in seasonal sales than any other tablet maker, and that could hurt them in the long run.

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TNW

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Comments


Mackay Bell May 2, 2014 um 3:15 am

IDG can’t explain who is making 30% of these "tablets?" There are ten million plus tablets manufactured each year, almost a third of the market, and no one has any idea who is making them? Are we sure they are tablets? Or maybe zip drives? Or cardboard with a picture of a iPad printed on them?

Apple Insider had a good piece questioning these tens of millions of "white box" tablets: "The firms counting these devices need not connect them to a particular manufacturer’s sales nor profits, nor explain why the devices have left no discernible footprint anywhere on earth: no impact on web traffic, no retail store traffic, and no boosting of tablet apps or media sales."

http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/11/16/the-curious-case-of-idc-gartner-strategy-analytics-pc-phone-tablet-data-on-apple

Take out the "others" and Apple has over 50% of the market. Strikes me like an auto analyst lowering Ford’s share of the car market by including bicycles, skateboards and matchbox toys.

Nate Hoffelder May 2, 2014 um 6:17 am

Oh, they know. They just won’t tell us without money changing hands.

fjtorres May 2, 2014 um 8:48 am

Of course they know who makes them: 100 different brands, each with 0.001% to 0.5% market share. They sell as Nook, Kobos, Craigs, and any of the house brands and no-name brands out there.

This is hardly surprising: in every bubble market where generic options are at least temporarily viable, "other" has always grown to outsell any single major brand. Then the bubble bursts…

It happened with calculators, PCs, DVD players, Mp3 players, tube TVs, and it is happening in LCD TVs. It probably won’t happen in Bluray simply because Bluray stalled before spawning a bubble.


Are Agents Worth It? | Digital Book World May 2, 2014 um 8:03 am

[…] As Tablets Rise, iPad Rises Slower (The Digital Reader) While the number of tablets Apple shipped in the first quarter decreased year-over-year, many of its competitors saw increases. So a market that is growing is leaving Apple a bit behind. That said, Apple is still the No. 1 tablet maker – by far. […]


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