IDC: Apple continues to lead the tablet industry with one-third of the market share

[RaduTyrsina]

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According to market research firm IDC, Apple's share of the tablet market has seen a slight boost in the 2013 holiday quarter that has ended on December 28. The new line of iPads allowed Apple to raise its share of the market to 33.8% from 29.7% in the previous quarter. Also, the Cupertino Company has seen a year-over-year growth of 13.5%.

Apple once again led the worldwide market for tablets, shipping 26 million units during the quarter, up from 14.1 million the previous quarter and 22.9 million in 4Q12. While the quarter represented the company's most successful on record, its year-over-year growth of 13.5% was well below the industry average.

The numbers bring into focus the challenges the company faces as it attempts to grow its tablet business in markets outside of its traditional mature-market strongholds and in the face of continued success from competitors both large and small. Apple saw its worldwide tablet market share for the quarter grow to 33.8%, up from 29.7% in the third quarter but down from its 38.2% share in the fourth quarter of 2012.

For the past two years, Apple’s share of the tablet market has seen a perpetuous decline, caused mainly by low-cost Android tablets. However, we need to mention that IDC’s numbers represent the number of shipped tablets, meaning those units that are currently in retail or in the channel and not necessarily yet sold directly to the consumer. Tom Mainelli, Research Director at the Tablets division at IDC says that important markets are already reaching their saturation point:

It's becoming increasingly clear that markets such as the U.S. are reaching high levels of consumer saturation and while emerging markets continue to show strong growth this has not been enough to sustain the dramatic worldwide growth rates of years past. We expect commercial purchases of tablets to continue to accelerate in mature markets, but softness in the consumer segment—brought about by high penetration rates and increased competition for the consumer dollar—point to a more challenging environment for tablets in 2014 and beyond.

It will be interesting to see how will the iPad fare in 2014, as it will get more pressure on its hegemony, not only from the growing number of Android tablets, but also from Windows 8 devices that are expected to ship in hundreds of millions.

Source: IDC

 

[Ser Aphim]

In the tablet buisness there is no comparison or actual battle actually. The iPad will and always will lead the tablet market.

 

[s2mikey]

In the tablet buisness there is no comparison or actual battle actually. The iPad will and always will lead the tablet market.

I have to agree. I was never an apple guy but ended up with multiple iPads for our household. I tried the others and they just didn't cut it.

 

[tlbaker]

I have to agree. I was never an apple guy but ended up with multiple iPads for our household. I tried the others and they just didn't cut it.

Yup, even my anti-Apple bro admits Apple has the best tablets lol.

Sent from my WiFi Only Black 64GB iPad with Retina Display in NYC using iPF