Apple Tablet Shipments Falling, Still Tops Others

Earlier this week it was reported that all other tablet shipments combined outpaced Apple’s iPad shipments during the third quarter of 2013. Though this may again change during the holiday quart...
Apple Tablet Shipments Falling, Still Tops Others
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  • Earlier this week it was reported that all other tablet shipments combined outpaced Apple’s iPad shipments during the third quarter of 2013. Though this may again change during the holiday quarter now that Apple has announced its refreshed iPad lineup, the overall trend is likely to continue as Android tablet manufacturers expand their offerings.

    Today, market research firm IHS weighed in with its estimates, showing that Apple is still leading in tablet market share, despite losing market share during the third quarter. The firm estimates that the company shipped 14.25 million iPads during the quarter, a slight decrease from the estimated 14.62 million it shipped during the second quarter. The drop, though, means that Apple market share fell significantly, down to just unger 30% from 33.5% during the second quarter. Apple is now estimated to have shipped over 170 million iPads since the original device debuted in 2010.

    “The erosion in Apple’s unit shipment market share was inevitable,” said Rhoda Alexander, director for tablet research at IHS. “Cheaper almost always wins the volume race, and competitors were quick to adjust pricing when it became clear that it was impossible to achieve anything close to Apple’s unit growth at the same price level. The resulting surge in sub-$250 alternatives catapulted Android to the leading operating system in tablets in the third quarter of 2012, but left vendors searching for profit in an increasingly competitive market.”

    Samsung unsurprisingly has the second-highest tablet market share with 22.2% during the third quarter. The Korean company shipped an estimated 10.7 million tablets during the quarter. Samsung is estimated to have now shipped 54 million tablets since 2010.

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