Research firm IDC today announced its preliminary estimates of worldwide tablet shipments for the second quarter of 2013, finding that Apple's share of the market has fallen to under a third. According to IDC's numbers, Apple held a 32.4% share of the market for quarter, compared to 39.6% in the previous quarter and a 60.3% share in the year-ago quarter.
While other top tablet manufacturers saw their shipments rise by 100-300% over the second quarter of 2012, the lack of a new iPad launch from Apple in the March-April timeframe resulted in a 14% drop in Apple's numbers. Still, other top vendors saw their shipments drop sequentially, with IDC attributing those drops to a lack of a general boost in tablet interest that accompanies iPad launches.
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In years past, Apple has launched a new tablet heading into the second quarter, which resulted in strong quarter-over-quarter growth. Now, Apple is expected to launch new tablet products in the second half of the year, a move that better positions it to compete during the holiday season. Meanwhile, the other two vendors in the top 3 also saw a decline in their unit shipments during the quarter. Second-place Samsung shipped 8.1 million units, down from 8.6 million in the first quarter of 2013, although up significantly from the 2.1 million units shipped in 2Q12. And third-place ASUS shipped a total of 2.0 million units in 2Q13, down from 2.6 million in 1Q13.
"A new iPad launch always piques consumer interest in the tablet category and traditionally that has helped both Apple and its competitors," said Tom Mainelli, Research Director, Tablets at IDC. "With no new iPads, the market slowed for many vendors, and that's likely to continue into the third quarter. However, by the fourth quarter we expect new products from Apple, Amazon, and others to drive impressive growth in the market."
Second-place Samsung continues to close on Apple in the tablet market, garnering 18% of the market as all of the other major tablet makers continue struggling to hit the 5% mark.
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As always, it is important to note that IDC's numbers track shipments instead of sales, and thus how many shipped devices are making their way into consumers' hands remains unclear. IDC's figures are also estimates, as most companies do not release their exact tablet shipment data and thus research firms must rely on supply chain data and calculations from information that is made public by manufacturers to build their estimates.
Top Rated Comments
Sorry but these firms have no real value in their #s...especially when Strategy Analytics Strategy inflated its earlier estimates of Android tablet sales by more than 11 million units last week until being debunked by Horrace Deidu and others.
The footnote might as well read:
As always, it is important to note that IDC's and other analysts are just pulling #s out of their collective you know what's and thus shouldn't even be taken with a grain of salt.
Funny how fanboy's were not doubting the numbers when Apple market share was good. IDC's numbers have always been reliable.
That being said, this specific 2Q13 number is deceiving because Apple didnt had a product launches this year while it had one a year ago. Also this is a time specific snapshot of the market shares, Apple market share of all tablets being used today is still much higher than this.
I am still disapointed in Apple ability to maintain its market shares, it looks like we are going toward a iphone market instead of an ipod market share. I dont like Apple doing all its refresh in the fall, it should spread out its cycles. Also I hope Apple will repackage the current mini into plastic shells when it launches the new mini in the fall, so it can compete at the $200 segment and have a product for the emerging markets.
Yes, they can spin it all they want.... the bottom line is a sale lost is a sale lost for another year or so.
I fell over the weekend. It wasn't very exciting.
Apple, listen:
iPad mini in the fall (October), iPad in the Spring (March).
iPhones in July
Macbook Pro/Macbook Air in August
iMacs/Mac Mini between 2x a year April and Novemeber perhaps.
Apple have used market share figures in their keynotes for a number of years to demonstrate how successful their products are. So you can't turn it around now and say that it doesn't matter anymore. Clearly Apple thinks it does matter or they wouldn't keep putting the figures into their presentations.
Fact is that for whatever reason the iPad is losing market share and therefore losing sales. That's worrying because it's bound to hit revenue and profit growth down the line.