Amazon has experienced a tremendous increase in growth with their Fire line of Android tablets. The Seattle company shipped out 11 million units, which is an increase of over 99.4% from 2015. Globally, Amazon tablets are the 3rd most popular devices shipped and accounts for around 7% market share.
The massive growth of Fire Tablets cannot be denied, but Amazon has their work cut out for themselves if they ever hope to compete against the top 2 vendors. Apple and Samsung, who commanded first and second place on the list with 27% and 17.2% percent market share respectively.
“Together, major tablet brands posted a marginal decline in their total shipments for 2016,” said Anita Wang, TrendForce notebook analyst. “Chief shipment contributors included Apple and Amazon. The former enjoyed strong iPad sales in the fourth-quarter busy season, and the latter nearly doubled its annual shipments. Other brands such as Huawei, Lenovo and Acer also expanded their shipments despite market headwinds.”
TrendForce believes that tablet shipments will continue to fall in 2017, from 157.4 million units in 2016 to 147.8 million in 2017, a fall of 6.1 percent. iPad shipments are estimated to fall by 6 to 8 percent annually to around 40 million units, and Samsung shipments dropping by 8 to 10 percent annually to around 25 million units.
Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past ten years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and Verge.