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Apple’s iPad Is Still Leading the Crashing Tablet Market

By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
Down Arrow Button Icon
May 4, 2017, 1:53 PM ET

Apple’s iPad is still the tablet market’s leader. But that’s not as great a title as previously.

The iPad was the most popular tablet in the first quarter with 8.9 million shipped worldwide, research firm IDC said on Thursday. While that gave Apple a leading 24.6% market share, the company’s shipments actually declined 13% year over year.

It was the biggest drop among any of the five most popular tablet makers.

“Apple experienced its 13th consecutive quarter of year-over-year shipment decline despite being the market leader in [the first quarter of 2017],” IDC said in a statement. “Apple’s results show that it is not immune to the changing dynamics of industry and consumer demand, part of which is due to the ongoing success of its other product lines.”

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The iPad was once an important part of Apple’s product mix and contributed significantly to the company’s bottom line. However, over the last few years, consumers have increasingly turned their attention to cheaper tablets and two-in-one hybrids, devices that can be used both as a notebook and tablet. Apple’s (AAPL) iPad revenue has subsequently suffered. Earlier this week, Apple said that its iPad sales during its fiscal second quarter was 8.9 million units, a 13% drop year over year. IPad revenue was $3.9 billion, a 12% decline.

But as IDC’s data shows, Apple isn’t the only company facing trouble with tablets. Worldwide, tablet makers shipped 36.2 million tablets during the first quarter, an 8.5% decline compared to the first quarter of 2016. According to IDC, it was the tenth consecutive quarterly decline for the overall market.

Still, other tablet makers didn’t experience quite the drop Apple did during the period.

Samsung (SSNLF), for instance, shipped 6 million units during the quarter, a 1.1% year-over-year decline. Amazon’s (AMZN) shipments fell just 1.8% to 2.2 million, and Lenovo shipped 2.1 million units, a 3.8% decline.

The winner in the first quarter, however, was China-based telecommunications company Huawei, which shipped 2.7 million tablets, notching a 31.7% gain over the same period a year earlier. According to IDC, Huawei’s growth was built partly on detachables, or tablets that can be plugged into a keyboard and mimic laptop-like functionality.

Here’s a look at the top five companies’ tablet market share:

  1. Apple: 24.6%
  2. Samsung: 16.5%
  3. Huawei: 7.4%
  4. Amazon: 6.0%
  5. Lenovo: 5.7%
  6. All other tablet makers: 39.8%

Looking ahead, IDC didn’t share a forecast about where the tablet market is headed. It did, however, say that it believes detachables and hybrid notebooks will continue to sell well in the coming months.

About the Author
By Don Reisinger
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