Amazon is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with in the global tablet market. Over the course of this last year Fire tablet sales have increased by over 319.9%. This is primarily due to its Amazon Prime Day sale in early July that led to a huge surge in shipments of its Fire tablets.
The new Fire HD 8 released in late September will likely perform well in the holiday quarter as it follows Amazon’s strategy of selling low-cost tablets as a gateway and companion to its ecosystem. It is important to note that Amazon’s unprecedented growth is partially attributed to the fact that IDC did not include the 6-inch tablets offered by Amazon in 3Q15.
IDC estimates tablet shipments dropped to an estimated 43 million units in the 3rd quarter, marking a 14.7% year-over-year decline. Apple led all vendors with 21.5% market share, up slightly from 19.6% in the year-ago quarter, while Samsung trailed in second with an estimated 6.5 million shipments and 15.1% market share. Amazon was in 3rd place with 3.1 million tablets sold, which is great considering they were not even a major player one year ago.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.