The latest data from research firms IDC and Strategy Analytics reveals that iPad market share declined for the ninth consecutive quarter as the worldwide tablet market continues to slow. Apple now has between 22.1 and 25.9-percent market share among tablet vendors, down from between 24.3 and 27.2-percent in the year-ago quarter.

iPad-shipments-IDC-Q1-2016
Apple reported iPad sales of 10.3 million during the March quarter earlier this week, compared to 12.62 million in the year-ago quarter. IDC and Strategy Analytics data shows Samsung trailing in second with 6 to 6.5 million tablets shipped, amounting to 14.0 to 15.2-percent market share during the first three months of 2016.

IDC data shows that Amazon experienced explosive 5421.7-percent year-over-year growth, with its market share rising from just 0.1-percent to 5.7-percent on the strength of new low-cost Fire tablets. The research firm noted that it did not count the Fire HD 6 in its Q1 2015 numbers. Strategy Analytics did not share Amazon data.

Lenovo and Huawei rounded out the top five in both datasets, with both vendors having shipped between 2.1 and 2.2 million tablets during the quarter. Their respective market shares ranged between 4.5-percent and 5.5-percent, amounting to only a slight variation between the IDC and Strategy Analytics data.

Strategy Analytics Tablets 2016
Global tablet shipments reached between 39.6 and 46.5 million during the quarter, the latter of which is the lowest total since the third quarter of 2012, according to Strategy Analytics. Nevertheless, IDC noted that convertible 2-in-1 tablets continue to experience growth, with quarterly shipments totaling 4.9 million.

"Microsoft arguably created the market for detachable tablets with the launch of their Surface line of products," said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers. "With the PC industry in decline, the detachable market stands to benefit as consumers and enterprises seek to replace their aging PCs with detachables.

Apple's recent foray into this segment has garnered them an impressive lead in the short term, although continued long-term success may prove challenging as a higher entry price point staves off consumers and iOS has yet to prove its enterprise-readiness, leaving plenty of room for Microsoft and their hardware partners to reestablish themselves."

IDC and Strategy Analytics shared smartphone and smartwatch data earlier this week.

Top Rated Comments

bushido Avatar
99 months ago
Tim Cook has repeatedly claimed that there is plenty of innovation to be had in iPad, and yet we've seen none of it.
what are you talking about. you can put more apps on a single page inside a folder now. if that isnt innovative
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacDevil7334 Avatar
99 months ago
Until the latest iPad does something appreciably different or better than an older model or a competitor, people aren't going to upgrade. My folks have an iPad 2 they got in 2011. Yes, it's slower and heavier than my Air 2, but it still does all the same things (web, email, movies, etc). The pencil support in the latest iPads might change things for some people. But the high starting price for the 12.9" version and the $100 price increase for the 9.7" version is going to deter a lot of people (myself included).

At the end of the day, Apple's iPad is being handicapped by its own superb hardware coupled with its utter lack of innovation in software, meaning there isn't much incentive to upgrade. Newer iPads don't really do anything new, only faster. The new strategy of increasing prices on everything from cases to the iPads themselves is only going to hurt sales more (as it rightly should). I guess Apple has decided they're better off trying to wring as much money out of the few people who are buying new iPads rather than innovating to drive more people to buy the product. Not a good strategy long term.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Soba Avatar
99 months ago
Tim Cook has repeatedly claimed that there is plenty of innovation to be had in iPad, and yet we've seen none of it.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cdmoore74 Avatar
99 months ago
Apple doesn't know what their doing. They take a product that's continues to downward spiral and they have the nerve to increase the base cost by $100 for the 9.7" just because they added the word pro to the end of the name. What a bunch of idiots!
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
zhenya Avatar
99 months ago
Hard to beat a full desktop OS running on a tablet which Microsoft and Linux has done.
I don't know what table you are looking at, but the data presented here in this article shows that Microsoft is pretty much dead in the water for tablets.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
npmacuser5 Avatar
99 months ago
Customer technology overload. Once upon a time we had a cool smart phone, a computer and we were happy campers. Now, cool smart phone, smart watch, tablet, streaming TV, computer, home automation, streaming speakers and home theater systems, all at some point upgrades are needed. The result, upgrades to new technology will slow unless one has very deep pockets.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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