Apple still dominates tablet market despite losing share to Samsung

Himanshu Arora

Posts: 902   +7

Even with a decline in iPad sales Apple is still the king of the tablet market, according to market research firm IDC, which yesterday published its tablet shipments preliminary results for the first quarter of the year.

According to IDC's report, Apple’s iPad shipments stood at 16.4 million, a drop of 16.1 percent compared to the same quarter the previous year. The Cupertino-based company lost its market share to Samsung, whose tablet shipments rose to 11.2 million from 8.5 million.

The South Korean company's tablet share last quarter was estimated at 22.3 percent, up from 17.5 percent in the same quarter last year.

Top five tablet vendors, shipments and market share - First quarter 2014 (Preliminary results, shipments in millions)

Vendor 1Q14 Unit shipments 1Q14 Market share 1Q13 Unit shipments 1Q13 Market share Year-on-year growth
Apple 16.4 32.5% 19.5 40.2% -16.1%
Samsung 11.2 22.3% 8.5 17.5% 32.0%
Asus 2.5 5.0% 2.6 5.4% -2.8%
Lenovo 2.1 4.1% 0.6 1.3% 224.3%
Amazon 1.0 1.9% 1.8 3.7% -47.1%
Others 17.2 34.2% 15.5 31.8% 11.5%
Total 50.4 100.0% 48.6 100.0% 3.9%

Among other vendors, Lenovo reported a huge surge in tablet market share. The Chinese company recorded a whopping growth rate of 224.3 percent in shipments, totaling 2.1 million units. Meanwhile, Asus saw its cut of the market inch down slightly to 5 percent from 5.4 percent, and Amazon's market share fell to 1.9 percent from 3.7 percent.

The tablet market as a whole reported a slow growth in the first quarter. Worldwide tablet shipments stood at 50.4 million, increasing by just 3.9 percent compared to the same quarter a year ago.

"Consumers are holding on to existing tablets and not upgrading, and large-screen phones – also called ‘phablets’ – are becoming more popular", said Tom Mainelli, IDC’s vice president for devices and displays research.

IDC's tablet shipments estimates include both conventional tablets as well as ’2-in-1′ tablets, that can be both tablets and laptops.

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Soo samsung will get more market share on apple in 1year thats what your saying then? So not long then.
 
Well, Apple is consistent at not just producing "cool" products, but also making them cooler with every update, guaranteed, and that's what creates the hype for all their new products.

For example, the new iPad Mini Retina is as good as it gets, the best quality tablet out there, hands down.

And let's look at their first competitor, Samsung. They say that Galaxy S5 is by far the ugliest of them all, much worse than S4.
 
Well, Apple is consistent at not just producing "cool" products, but also making them cooler with every update, guaranteed, and that's what creates the hype for all their new products.

For example, the new iPad Mini Retina is as good as it gets, the best quality tablet out there, hands down.

And let's look at their first competitor, Samsung. They say that Galaxy S5 is by far the ugliest of them all, much worse than S4.

Each update increases the RAM & CPU count it also comes with free girls thats why each update makes it cooler, Ipad Retina might be cool but its not cheap!

I for one would want a surface pro 2 but unfortunately I dont have £1k+ to give away :/
 
wastedkill said:
I for one would want a surface pro 2 but unfortunately I dont have £1k+ to give away :/

Fortunately, I do have $1K to afford Surface Pro 2, but I'd rather wait for the new Surface Pro 3.
 
VitalyT said:
Well, Apple is consistent at not just producing "cool" products, but also making them cooler with every update, guaranteed, and that's what creates the hype for all their new products.

For example, the new iPad Mini Retina is as good as it gets, the best quality tablet out there, hands down.

And let's look at their first competitor, Samsung. They say that Galaxy S5 is by far the ugliest of them all, much worse than S4.
  1. The only thing that's cool about Apple is the amount of cash they have stacked up.
  2. The updates are frequently complained about, taking up more resources and decreasing battery life across the board.
  3. The hype is only created due to the nature of the target audience Apple appeals to.
  4. Your example is completely null and void. The iPad Mini Retina 326 pixels per inch (ppi) vs the Samsung S5's 432ppi. Not to mention the S5 has a faster processor, better camera, bigger screen, better batter life, cheaper storage, and double the RAM.
  5. Style wise - sure the 5S has a metal casing which is preferred...but does that even matter when over 75% of smart phone users keep a case on their phone at all times? Look at two different phones with the same otterbox case, then all you see is that the S5 has a bigger, better looking screen.
And lastly, I don't trust any of these "Market share" findings. Apple is consistently paying big name companies to make their device look like the next best thing since sliced bread...which on the business side of things is pure genius! Until you drop your iPhone 5S and pay $100+ to have the screen replaced. Which is more than I paid over the past 5 years for multiple Android smart phones.

*nerd*
 
I see Apple doesn't keep track of units returned for being defective or customers didn't like it. Microsoft got in too late and they got greedy with jacked-up pricing to make a huge profit then found out the hard way. Android sales have dropped too..

Transparent tablets should make tablets sales peek again for all vendors..
 
The updates are frequently complained about, taking up more resources and decreasing battery life across the board.
Apples and oranges (no pun intended). iOS and Windows Phone are already lean, efficient mobile OSes. For them, there is nowhere to go but up in battery usage and processing power requirements when adding new features. Stark contrast with Android, which was a bloated mess a few years ago and only now (since KitKat) that really started getting sorted out. Also, even with the KitKat optimization, Adroid still has much larger memory requirements than either iOS or Windows Phone.
The hype is only created due to the nature of the target audience Apple appeals to.
The exact same applies to Samsung. The Galaxy S5 sold extremely well at launch. To a public that constantly criticizes Apple about launching new phones with very little improvement over the previous model. Now tell me again what's the big improvement between the Galaxy S4 and the Galaxy S5...
The iPad Mini Retina 326 pixels per inch (ppi) vs the Samsung S5's 432ppi
You just compared a tablet to a smartphone. Immeditely after calling VitalyT's example "completely null and void". Pure genius.
the S5 has a faster processor, better camera
Citation needed. I hope you understand that more cores and higher frequency doesn't necessarily make a CPU better, the same way more megapixels does not necessarily make a camera better.
and double the RAM
Yes. Because, again, Android has higher memory requirements. iOS (and Windows Phone as well) simply do not require that much memory. Also, just like on PCs, more memory does not make the CPU faster.
the 5S has a metal casing which is preferred...but does that even matter when over 75% of smart phone users keep a case on their phone at all times?
Citation needed, again. Also, the the percentage of users that do not use cases (whatever that is), it matters a lot. To those people, Apple and HTC have a huge advantage (as well as Sony, although on their case it's glass).
Apple is consistently paying big name companies to make their device look like the next best thing since sliced bread...
And Samsung is constantly kidnapping the families of tech reviewers and only releasing them upon receiving great reviews for their products. That has even occurred to TechSpot staff multiple times.
See? I too can make up senseless conspiracy theories. After all, in the internet everything is true and citation is never needed, right?
Which is more than I paid over the past 5 years for multiple Android smart phones.
Samsung sells their flagships at the same price points Apple does. So unless in the past five years the only Android phones you bought were low-end ones, that statement of yours is simply not true.
 
I think once the tablet app ecosystem for Android tablets grows to where Apple is now, then Android could easily overtake Apple.
 
Until you drop your iPhone 5S and pay $100+ to have the screen replaced. Which is more than I paid over the past 5 years for multiple Android smart phones.

*nerd*
you are a guest, so you probably won't respond. But I broke the screen on an S4 and it was about 300USD to replace.
 
Until you drop your iPhone 5S and pay $100+ to have the screen replaced. Which is more than I paid over the past 5 years for multiple Android smart phones.

*nerd*
you are a guest, so you probably won't respond. But I broke the screen on an S4 and it was about 300USD to replace.
That does seem expensive. Did you get more than one quote? Someone I know had a problem with an Apple 4S after it was updated with the latest version of IOS. The WiFi stopped working. Apple wanted to charge £160 to fix it. In the end it cost nothing to fix as he found a cure on the internet.

First of you heat up the phone with a hairdryer, switch off the phone and put in fridge for a while. Then switch on again. The reason this works is because the update causes problems with the heat sensor in the phone that automatically switches off the WiFi. The cure works by resetting the calibration of the heat sensor.

It does appear that they charge a lot so you are pressured into buying a new phone instead. It is pretty poor that an update potentially bricks a perfectly good phone and they then charge you a fortune to fix it!
 
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