Having stumbled in recent years, the iPad has had a great few months. Not only were iPad sales up 15 percent year-over-year in Apple’s most recent quarter, but a new IDC report (mentioned by Tim Cook during the most recent earnings call) highlights just how significantly the company is leading its rivals in the tablet market right now.
While overall worldwide shipments for tablets declined 3.4% year-over-year to 37.9 million, Apple takes the number one spot with shipments of 11.4 million units, a.k.a. 30 percent of the market. This time last year, the company shipped 10 million units for 25.4 percent of the market.
While shipments aren’t the same thing as sales, in Apple’s case the two tend to be closely aligned — and the numbers nonetheless represent an impressive figure for the company.
Photo: IDC
Apple’s success with the iPad is underlined by the fact that Samsung, in second place, shipped just 6 million tablets for 15.8 percent of the market. In other words, Apple is close to doubling its nearest tablet competitor. Third, fourth and fifth place on the list were represented by Huawei, Amazon, and Lenovo.
“Apple positioned itself quite well during the quarter by consolidating its lineup and introducing two new iPads,” IDC writes. “The new iPad’s relatively low price point triggered some consumers to upgrade their aging devices and demand for this new tablet finally caused a turnaround for Apple’s iPad business. Meanwhile Apple’s transition towards detachable tablets continued with the launch of the 10.5″ iPad Pro and a major update to iOS (expected later this year).”
Did you buy an iPad over the past three months? Leave your comments below.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
4 responses to “iPad is on top of the tablet world once more”
update from iPad Air to iPad Pro 10.5 with Apple Pencil and very satisfied with performance of the new iPad Pro.
It rankles me how American business lives quarter to quarter, making grand prognostications based on a three month span. Sometimes it turns out, sometimes it doesn’t. We will see how Apple and iPad do long term. It’s off to a good start though, no doubt fueled by lowering the entry point to be more competitive. But Apple inserts foot so often these days that it’s a crap shoot. Yeah, Apple 3.0 market share and profits have grown; but Apple no longer makes the very best products it can. Profits are more important; than Earth even.
as always with big business , what can you expect ?
got the new i-pad pro 10.5 inch, well happy with it as i’m running IOS 11, so all hunky dory