Tablet Market Sees Modest Growth as Apple Maintains Lead

According to a new preliminary report from market research firm IDC, shipments of tablets reached 40.5 million units in the second quarter of 2021, up 4.2 percent over the same period last year — modest growth compared with the 68.6% surge in Chromebooks in the same period.

"Opportunities in the education market are still ample for both tablets and Chromebooks. Online learning has gained rapid traction and has pushed forward the digital revolution in the learning space," said Anuroopa Nataraj, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers, in a prepared statement. "While there isn't a single solution globally, many emerging markets continue to ramp up use of Android tablets while schools in some developed markets like the USA and Canada lean more toward Chromebooks. That said, there has also been a recent uprising of Chromebooks in areas of Europe, as well as a few Asian countries as schools start opening up to platform change."

Apple was the leader in the quarter, capturing 31.9 percent of the market on 12.9 million units (up 3.5 percent from the same period last year). That market share is down just slightly from 32.1 percent in Q2 2020.

Samsung's tablet shipments grew 13.3 percent year over year, reaching 8 million units. Samsung's market share climbed 1.6 percentage points to 19.6 percent.

Lenovo made even grater gains, climbing 64.5 percent in total shipments to 4.7 million units. Lenovo captured 11.6 percent of the market, up from 7.4 percent in Q2 2020.

Amazon grew 20.3 percent to 4.3 million units, capturing 10.7 percent of the market. That's up from a market share of 9.3 percent in Q2 2020.

Fifth-place Huawei sold off its Honor business and lost significant market share during the quarter as a result. Hwawei shipped 2.1 million units, down 53.7 percent from Q2 2020. Market share declined from 11.5 percent to 5.1 percent.

All other tablet manufacturers combined shipped 8.5 million units. Market share was essentially flat for them.

For more information, visit IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker.

About the Author

David Nagel is the former editorial director of 1105 Media's Education Group and editor-in-chief of THE Journal, STEAM Universe, and Spaces4Learning. A 30-year publishing veteran, Nagel has led or contributed to dozens of technology, art, marketing, media, and business publications.

He can be reached at [email protected]. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrnagel/ .


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