Global tablet shipments soar in second-quarter from a year earlier, says IDC

Worldwide shipments of tablets rose 60% in the second quarter from a year earlier. This is despite no new products being released by any of the major tech companies, while volumes slowed sequentially, according to International Data Corp (IDC). For the la test quarter, 45.1 million units of tablets were shipped in total, up from 28.3 million a year earlier, but down from 49.2 million in the previous quarter.

Shipments of Apple iPad fell 14% from the year earlier to 14.6 million. In previous years, Apple has released a new tablet in the second quarter, but this year, the company is expected to launch new tablet products in the second half of the year, according to IDC. “With no new iPads, the market slowed for many vendors, and that is likely to continue into the third quarter as well. However, by the fourth quarter we expect new products from Apple, Amazon and others to drive impressive growth in the market,” believes IDC research director Tom Mainelli.

“Besides Apple, the remaining vendors are still figuring out which platform strategy will be successful over the long run,” observes Ryan Reith, programme manager for IDC’s mobility tracker programmes. “To date, Android has been far more successful than the Windows 8 platform. However, Microsoft-fueled products are starting to make notable progress in the market.”

In second place, Samsung saw its shipments almost triple, shipping 8.1 million units compared with 2.1 million a year earlier, occupying 16% of the market up from 7.6% last year. Asus that occupied the third position shipped 2 million units, more than doubling its shipments from last year to grab 4.5% of the market share. Lenovo and Acer re-entered the top five this quarter. Lenovo shipped more than double what it did last year to 1.5 million units, occupying 3.3% of the market, while Acer’s shipments more than doubled to 1.4 million, helping it grab a 3.1% market share. And Microsoft failed to figure in the top five.