When Apple announces new products and release dates, the entire tablet industry benefits. We have not seen any new devices being issued yet this year from the company that tends to dominate tablet sales. This has decreased demand for the iPad, while Samsung enjoys accelerated demand. Research firm IDC today announced its preliminary estimates of worldwide tablet shipments for the second quarter of 2013, finding that Apple’s share of the market has fallen 1/3. According to IDC’s numbers, Apple held a 32.4% share of the market for quarter, compared to 39.6% in the previous quarter and a 60.3% share in the year-ago quarter.
IDC mentioned “In years past, Apple has launched a new tablet heading into the second quarter, which resulted in strong quarter-over-quarter growth. Now, Apple is expected to launch new tablet products in the second half of the year, a move that better positions it to compete during the holiday season. Meanwhile, the other two vendors in the top 3 also saw a decline in their unit shipments during the quarter. Second-place Samsung shipped 8.1 million units, down from 8.6 million in the first quarter of 2013, although up significantly from the 2.1 million units shipped in 2Q12. And third-place ASUS shipped a total of 2.0 million units in 2Q13, down from 2.6 million in 1Q13.”
This new report mainly focuses on tablets that have shipped, and not necessary have been sold. It is very hard to track this sort of data, as major corporations tend not to divulge exact figures. It ends up falling to the retail sector on how many they have purchased.
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.
