When are Apple recently reported its fiscal fourth quarter earnings, which indicated that iPad sales fell 13.06% year-over-year in the quarter that ran from July to the end of September. For fiscal year 2022, Apple’s tablet sales are down 8% year over year. The bullet in the hand given to the tablet industry by the pandemic seems to have bloomed.
The global tablet market reports lower shipments in the fifth quarter year-on-year
During the height of the pandemic, children attended classes remotely and adults worked from home. Tablets were used for both work and play. During the day, your basic daily slate can run streaming video from a classroom or boardroom. And when the school or work day is over, the same device provides games, movies, and other entertainment available through built-in apps.
Apple, Samsung and Amazon were the top three manufacturers in the global tablet market last quarter
And even if COVID cases jump from time to time, kids are physically in class and parents are back in the office. Thus, the demand for tablets is decreasing. How much? Well, we can tell you that analytics firm Canalys reported the fifth consecutive quarter of lower shipments in the tablet market compared to last year. In the third quarter of this year, such shipments fell 6% on an annual basis, better than the 11% annual decline in the second quarter.
Still, shipments remain above pre-pandemic levels, as 35.3 million units were shipped in the third quarter. Surprisingly, Apple remained in the top spot, shipping 14.4 million iPad units between July and September. This indicator decreased by 5.6% compared to the third quarter of last year. Apple grew its market share from 40.5% to 40.7%, despite lower shipments due to weakness in the overall tablet market. Apple has released its redesigned 10th generation mainstream iPad model, along with new 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro units.
Apple is also far behind Samsung. After tablet shipments fell 8.3% in Q3, the company shipped 6.6 million slates in the quarter as Sammy’s market share fell from 19.1% to 18.7%. Amazon was third after a strong quarter, with its tablet shipments up 17.9% on a year-over-year basis. In three months, the company shipped 3.2 million tablets as Amazon’s market share grew to 9.1% of the global tablet market.
Lenovo shipped 2.7 million tablets in the third quarter, down 36.6% from last year’s third quarter. The company’s share of the global tablet pie fell from 11.4% to 7.7%. And for the third quarter, it was in fifth place Huawei. The embattled Chinese manufacturer saw its tablet shipments drop 41.1% year-over-year to 1.5 million units in the three months since. This company has a share of 4.2% of the world market.
The “Others” category, which includes other names we didn’t mention, saw third-quarter tablet shipments grow 21.6% worldwide to 6.9 million tablets. This conglomerate of tablet manufacturers accounted for 19.7% of the global tablet market in the third quarter.
Despite the industry’s current weakness, the future looks good for the tablet market
Canalys analyst Himani Mukka said: “The decline in tablet demand in the post-pandemic world has been exacerbated by increased macroeconomic pressure on consumer spending. Private education has largely resumed and people are spending less time at home and on their devices, increasing spending to refresh or upgrade. Household budgets for tablet upgrades However, promotional activities by vendors and retailers, including back-to-school deals, along with increased sales in the commercial sector, have helped keep shipments higher than before the pandemic.”
Mukka added, “The tablet market may not peak again in 2020 and 2021, but the trajectory is more positive than expected a few years ago and vendors continue to focus on the category.”
