Apple's Share of Tablet Market Sees Slight Holiday Quarter Boost

MacRumors · Jan 29, 2014

Following its mobile phone report earlier this week, research firm IDC has published its estimates of tablet shipments for the fourth quarter of 2013, showing that Apple continues to lead the market with roughly one-third of all shipments.

Worldwide tablet shipments in 4Q13 in millions of units (Source: IDC)

Apple's share of the market has generally declined over the past two years amid the proliferation of low-cost Android tablets, particularly unbranded "whitebox" devices in the Chinese market. The holiday quarter with refreshed iPads did, however, allow Apple to raise its share of the market to 33.8 percent from 29.7 percent in the previous quarter.

Apple once again led the worldwide market for tablets, shipping 26 million units during the quarter, up from 14.1 million the previous quarter and 22.9 million in 4Q12. While the quarter represented the company's most successful on record, its year-over-year growth of 13.5% was well below the industry average. The numbers bring into focus the challenges the company faces as it attempts to grow its tablet business in markets outside of its traditional mature-market strongholds and in the face of continued success from competitors both large and small.

Apple saw its worldwide tablet market share for the quarter grow to 33.8%, up from 29.7% in the third quarter but down from its 38.2% share in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Apple's iPad shipments (red) and share of worldwide tablet shipments (blue) for 2Q11-4Q13 (Source: IDC)

As always, it is important to note that IDC's numbers track shipments instead of sales, and thus how many shipped devices are making their way into consumers' hands remains unclear. IDC's figures are also estimates, as most companies do not release their exact tablet shipment data and thus research firms must rely on supply chain data and calculations from information that is made public by manufacturers to build their estimates.

Article Link: Apple's Share of Tablet Market Sees Slight Holiday Quarter Boost

thedeejay · Jan 29, 2014

Definitely feel that the "iPad Pro" and the next generation iPad Air/Mini will help with growth. Can't wait for TouchID as part of the next iPad and I'm in!

lolkthxbai · Jan 29, 2014

I can't trust IDC anymore. Lmao

Will do good · Jan 29, 2014

Must be the area where I live. All I see are iPads, on planes, meetings, social events. Very few of the others.

Maybe it's shipped vs. sold & use.

Elbon · Jan 29, 2014

lolkthxbai said:
I can't trust IDC anymore. Lmao

Could you ever trust them? ;-)

I'm just sick of their constant beating of the "market share" drum. Sure, market share is a valid data point, but it's not the only one.

Lesser Evets · Jan 29, 2014

Apple's iPad sales blossomed. The market share declined...

The PC market is being destroyed. That was my takeaway.

69Mustang · Jan 29, 2014

Will do good said:
Must be the area where I live. All I see are iPads, on planes, meetings, social events. Very few of the others.

Maybe it's shipped vs. sold & use.

The vast majority of tablets never go further than the home or car. Most are family consumption devices.

Shipped vs sold has been debunked thoroughly on this site. The majority of what people call Apple's "sold" number is in fact shipped. The only sales that Apple counts to end user are online, in Apple stores, and some education. So shipped vs sold is not a factor.

TallManNY · Jan 29, 2014

What about that difference between Gartner and IDC in estimated US Mac sales. They came to radically different conclusions. Now that Apple has reported 4.8 million Mac sales, an increase from last year's 4.1 million for the same quarter, do we believe that Gartner's higher estimate of U.S. sales was more likely to be correct?

QCassidy352 · Jan 29, 2014

Will do good said:
Must be the area where I live. All I see are iPads, on planes, meetings, social events. Very few of the others.

Maybe it's shipped vs. sold & use.

Same, that's all I see too. Literally all - can't recall ever seeing anyone using an android tablet in the wild. Of course, that's one man's meaningless anecdotal experience... But these numbers still surprise me.

Nevaborn · Jan 29, 2014

69Mustang said:
The vast majority of tablets never go further than the home or car. Most are family consumption devices.

Shipped vs sold has been debunked thoroughly on this site. The majority of what people call Apple's "sold" number is in fact shipped. The only sales that Apple counts to end user are online, in Apple stores, and some education. So shipped vs sold is not a factor.

The difference is Apple products are consistently out of stock so the shipped number does quite accurately represent the sold number. Samsung I see a few products around but tbh most are on shelves in say supermarkets lol. apart from Tesco whos offering I consider to be better value for money actually.

Rogifan · Jan 29, 2014

More silly market share figures based on what exactly? And what is this "other" category? A bunch of cheap $50 tablets selling in China or at toy stores? To me these numbers are meaningless because there is no way to validate them. I don't care that Cook might reference these guys on conference calls, I still don't trust their accuracy. Especially when they have a habit of restating prior quarters without explanation (that "other" category always gets bigger).

springsup · Jan 29, 2014

Apple still has a chance with tablets because they're more competitively priced.

Look at the price of an iPad against the cost of an iPhone and tell me if you notice something strange. Which would you expect to be more expensive?

KdParker · Jan 29, 2014

Will be interesting to see what will happen once the tablet market growth slows (which could be a while).

As the cheaper tablets get better, I would expect the Apples share as well as profits to decline. Wonder if the iPad prices will eventually have to start dropping.

69Mustang · Jan 29, 2014

Nevaborn said:
The difference is Apple products are consistently out of stock so the shipped number does quite accurately represent the sold number. Samsung I see a few products around but tbh most are on shelves in say supermarkets lol. apart from Tesco whos offering I consider to be better value for money actually.

Hyperbole aside, I'm not quite sure what you're saying with your post. I wasn't denying accuracy of anyone's numbers. I just didn't want to see this thread turn into the inevitiable "Apple sells, everybody else ships to warehouses" meme.

I'm not a brand fan of any company so I want to see more of them succeed. More competition is good for the companies and good for the consumer. No one can rest on their laurels.

doboy · Jan 29, 2014

Except Apple sold all of 26 million "shipped" units per their earnings yesterday.

DaveMcM76 · Jan 29, 2014

MacRumors said:
As always, it is important to note that IDC's numbers track shipments instead of sales, and thus how many shipped devices are making their way into consumers' hands remains unclear. IDC's figures are also estimates, as most companies do not release their exact tablet shipment data and thus research firms must rely on supply chain data and calculations from information that is made public by manufacturers to build their estimates.

I wish I'd thought of making money selling reports containing random stabs in the dark - sorry, I mean carefully calculated figures - about what other businsesses may or may not be doing...

KdParker · Jan 29, 2014

Lesser Evets said:
Apple's iPad sales blossomed. The market share declined...

The PC market is being destroyed. That was my takeaway.

The PC and Apple desktops/laptop markets are going to be reduced due to the expansion of tablets.

There will most likely be a time where only professionals who need the versatiliy and extra power of a laptop/desktop will be the target demograhic for desktops and laptops.

Kind of the way laptops reduced desktops market share overtime.

carjakester · Jan 29, 2014

thedeejay said:
Definitely feel that the "iPad Pro" and the next generation iPad Air/Mini will help with growth. Can't wait for TouchID as part of the next iPad and I'm in!

i cant see most people using touchID for the ipad. i know that i dont even use any buttons on my ipad. i use the smart case to sleep/wake and the five finger pinch to close apps. plus i dont even use a password.

TXCherokee · Jan 29, 2014

Elbon said:
Could you ever trust them? ;-)

I'm just sick of their constant beating of the "market share" drum. Sure, market share is a valid data point, but it's not the only one.

While I mostly agree with you, especially at this point in the maturity of the tablet, as the market matures, real market share (sold vs shipped) will become a more important data point. Apple will need to maintain some form of meaningful market presence in the post-PC era or once again be relegated to the status of 'that other' computer company.

NIKKG · Jan 29, 2014

Samsung starting to kick some butt in the tablet market! 85%!? Damn

osofast240sx · Jan 29, 2014

69Mustang said:
The vast majority of tablets never go further than the home or car. Most are family consumption devices.

Shipped vs sold has been debunked thoroughly on this site. The majority of what people call Apple's "sold" number is in fact shipped. The only sales that Apple counts to end user are online, in Apple stores, and some education. So shipped vs sold is not a factor.

It's a factor long term in the future companies will be more conservative with their purchase volume.

Popeye206 · Jan 29, 2014

NIKKG said:
Samsung starting to kick some butt in the tablet market! 85%!? Damn

Yeah and around here there were all sorts of promotions going on Buy a Samsung phone and get a tablet for free by a Samsung TV and get a tablet for free sneeze and say "Samsung" at the same time and get a tablet for free.

Not to say they don't have a good solution, but there was tons of promotions going on over the holidays that put a these in customers hands at a low to no cost. I wonder how much money they actually made in this segment?

robjulo · Jan 29, 2014

Will do good said:
Must be the area where I live. All I see are iPads, on planes, meetings, social events. Very few of the others.

Maybe it's shipped vs. sold & use.

Yes. There are massive warehouses in the midwest where Samsung and others are storing tablets to make the market share numbers look better on macrumors.

Will do good · Jan 29, 2014

69Mustang said:
The vast majority of tablets never go further than the home or car. Most are family consumption devices.

Shipped vs sold has been debunked thoroughly on this site. The majority of what people call Apple's "sold" number is in fact shipped. The only sales that Apple counts to end user are online, in Apple stores, and some education. So shipped vs sold is not a factor.

For Apple I agreed. However it's the other companies I'm referring to.

As to "The vast majority of tablets never go further than the home or car. Most are family consumption devices." I can agreed to that too, however the percentage I see in the wild is still mostly iPads. If Apple only have 33% of the market share I've not see the other 66% in the wild. Not where I usually visit. Must be where I live?

BC2009 · Jan 29, 2014

I think I missed the part where competitors like Samsung actually announced their unit sales numbers.... oh wait, no I didn't, that never happened. All we know is that Samsung sold a total of 100M "Galaxy Devices" including low-end devices with the name "Galaxy" on them.

Apple's Share of Tablet Market Sees Slight Holiday Quarter Boost

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