Apple has a real hit on its hands with the 10.2-inch iPad it launched last fall. It helped push Apple to a 22.7% year-over-year increase in tablet shipments last quarter, according to a market-research firm.
iPadOS devices continue to vastly outsell all their rivals, and Apple increased its lead in the final three months of 2019.
Strong iPad shipments in Q4 2019
Apple shipped 15.9 million tablets during the October-through-December period, reports IDC. That’s up from 12.9 million in the same quarter of 2018.
That increase gave the company 36.5% of the global tablet market, compared to a 29.6% share in the same period a year earlier.
For all of 2019, Apple shipped 49.9 million iPads, up 15.2% percent from the 43.3 million shipped the year before.
More iPad sales but less revenue
“The new iPad launched last quarter accounted for nearly 65% of their shipments,” noted IDC. In an odd twist, the popularity of this new device actually resulted in lower quarterly revenue year-over-year from iPadOS computers.
The 10.2-inch iPad that sold so well during the holidays costs just $329. A year earlier, Apple’s sales were dominated by the newly-launched iPad Pro series. These high-end models start at $799 — more than twice as much. The result was an 11% year-over-year decrease in tablet revenue.
That said, additional iPads in people’s hands leads to growing revenue from services, as these users buy applications, tune in to Apple TV+, subscribe to Apple Arcade, etc.
Crushing the competition
iPad dominated tablet sales since its debut, and that continues. Most of its competitors saw decreases in the number of units shipped last quarter.
Samsung accounted for 7 million units, a 7.4% YoY decline, while Huawei shipments declined 2.8% to 4 million units, according to IDC. Amazon had a rough quarter, experiencing a dramatic 29% drop, year over year. This online retailer shipped just 3.3 million Fire HD 10, Fire HD 8, Fire 7, etc. units in Q4 2019.
Aside from Apple, the only one of the top five tablet makers who saw an increase in shipments was Lenovo, rising 8.3% to 2.5 million units.
