The M4 iPad Air that launched in March contributed strongly to robust growth in Apple’s tablet shipments.
As a result, the iPad’s share of the global tablet market increased. Approximately 2.5 times as many Apple tablets sold last quarter as the iPad’s biggest rival.
iPad shipments still dominate the tablet market Apple created
While Apple didn’t invent the tablet — there were already clunky and commercially unsuccessful forms — the original iPad that arrived in 2010 was the first that consumers actually wanted to buy. Rival companies rushed to release their own tablets in response, transforming what had been a niche category into one of the consumer electronics industry’s most important markets.
Apple has maintained its dominance of the category. It made up 40.1% of all tablet sales in the first three months of 2026, according to data from the market-research firm Omdia. That’s up from 37.2% of the market in the same quarter of 2025.
“Apple retained its top position, shipping 14.8 million units and growing 7.9% year on year, supported by strong performance from the iPad Air,” said the analysts.
A total of 14.8 million iPadOS devices shipped last quarter, according to Omdia. The last time Apple sold that many during a first quarter was 2022, when the pandemic was pushing up demand for computers of all types.
But even without that crisis, iPad has shown growth in every quarter going back to spring 2024.
Apple recently reported that iPad sales generated $6.9 billion in revenues during the January-March period. That’s an 8% increase over the previous year.
iPad rivals are marginal
Samsung holds second place in the tablet race, but it shipped only 5.8 million units in Q1 2026, according to Omdia. That’s a 12.6% year-over-year decline. It gave Samsung a 15.7% share of the world market.
Huawei and Lenovo finished in third and fourth places in the race, with 8.8% and 8.2% of the market, respectively. Xiaomi came in fifth place at 7.2%.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh SE/30 (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer.
That’s because he’s a “tablet first” type of guy. Rather than use a Macbook, he connects a keyboard case to the iPad. And instead of a desktop Mac, he connects his tablet to a 27-inch display and full-size keyboard. (So don’t try to tell him that everyone has to use a Mac to be productive.)
Before coming to Cult of Mac, Ed wrote for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
