Apple's Share of Worldwide Tablet Shipments Slips to 43.6% in 4Q 2012

[MacRumors]

Research firm IDC today announced its preliminary estimates of worldwide tablet shipments for the fourth quarter of 2012, finding that Apple's share of the market slipped to 43.6% even as the iPad mini drove a nearly 50% growth in units for the company. Apple had held a 50.4% share in the previous quarter and a 51.7% share in the year-ago quarter.

"We expected a very strong fourth quarter, and the market didn't disappoint," said Tom Mainelli, research director, Tablets, at IDC. "New product launches from the category's top vendors, as well as new entrant Microsoft, led to a surge in consumer interest and very robust shipments totals during the holiday season. The record-breaking quarter stands in stark contrast to the PC market, which saw shipments decline during the quarter for the first time in more than five years."

Apple's iPad once again led the market, and the firm's shipment total of 22.9 million units was exactly in line with IDC's forecast for the period. A strong iPad mini launch, plus availability of the fourth generation full-sized iPad, led to solid 48.1% shipment growth over the same quarter last year. However, strong competition in the market led to Apple's market share declining for a second quarter in a row (down to 43.6% from 46.4% last quarter).

Samsung and Asus were the biggest winners in the surging tablet market, with Samsung seeing 263% year-over-year growth to seize 15% of the market. Samsung's share was, however, down from 18.4% in the third quarter.

IDC notes that Microsoft did not qualify for the top five vendors in the fourth quarter, but the company did ship 900,000 units of its Surface tablet with Windows RT. It remains to be seen, however, whether those shipments and the upcoming Surface Pro tablet will translate into strong sales for the company.

Article Link: Apple's Share of Worldwide Tablet Shipments Slips to 43.6% in 4Q 2012

[SSD-GUY]

The end is nigh.

[samcraig]

In with "Who cares about Marketshare - Apple makes the most profits" comment

[abhishake]

Samsung the new Apple?

^at least a few articles with that title are about to be written.

[AustinIllini]

I still love my iPad...?

[Intarweb]

Good. Make the stock slip more so I can get in at a reasonable level.

[ArtOfWarfare]

I'm surprised Microsoft is still so low and Samsung so high given the only tablets I've noticed in the wild are iPads, Kindle Fires, and Surfaces. I've seen Samsung, Acer, and others at work, but that's kind of expected given I'm an Mobile Software Engineer...

[KieranDotW]

I admit I'm surprised seeing what the iPad mini sales are like

[ovrlrd]

Would be great to see this graph overlaid with percentage of web traffic.

[yakapo]

Samsung had a 260% increase in sales? Impressive.

[monkor]

I used to not really see the point in the 10-inch tablet, but then I bought an Asus Transformer along with the keyboard dock. There's innovation to be had in the tablet arena, and these hybrid "convertible" kind of tablets may well be the future. Asus is selling them quite well. I can use the thing heavily and still have plenty of battery life left thanks to there being two batteries in the dock itself and the tablet. It's crazy, but it has all but replaced my laptop.

I used to scoff at the idea, but I'd love it if Apple had some type of keyboard addition just to shake things up. The iPad with a keyboard dock that very, very easily attaches and detaches would be incredibly potent..

[BC2009]

IDC exaggerating Samsung's performance again in their estimates.

Never mind what Apple did, Asus makes the Nexus 7. Amazon makes the Kindle tablets. Now ask yourself how many Galaxy Tabs you have seen in people's hands compared to Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire. Galaxy Tabs sell at two and three times the price of the Nexus 7 and Kindle.

iPads are everywhere. I went to Disneyland for New Years and people were standing in line for rides playing with iPads. It floored me. I asked one couple about it and they were from Australia. They said it was their cheapest way to get internet connectivity. Another couple I saw did not speak English -- they were from China and their iPad min was displaying everything in Chinese.

I did not see any Kindles or Nexus 7 tablets at Disneyland - and certainly no Galaxy Tabs. This could have been because Kindle and Nexus 7 simply don't have cellular connectivity at the low-end prices at which they normally sell, but I have seen plenty of those tablets out and about in other places since people use them for reading. I never see a Galaxy Tab. In fact, the last time I saw a Galaxy Tab that was not on a store shelf or being offered as a free promotion with a Samsung TV was over a year ago.

There is no way Galaxy Tab is out-selling the Nexus 7 or Amazon Kindle Fire. These estimates for Samsung are insanely high. Even Android fans attest to the Nexus 7 being the most popular Android tablet.

[stukick]

With all the bad Apple news of late, is this really a surprise to anyone?

[hayesk]

Originally Posted by samcraig

In with "Who cares about Marketshare - Apple makes the most profits" comment

You forgot "but only Apple reports sales to end users. Shipments are stuck in the retail channel."

Seriously though, if the point of the study is to show Apple is becoming less of a dominant player, both of those comments are legitimate criticisms. Time for the other companies to grow up and stop deceiving us with BS "shipment" numbers.

[appletoandroid]

Is this surprising? Lack of innovation leads to loss in marketshare. And people wonder why AAPL is falling. Growth in Samsung's innovations is remarkable, as they doubled their marketshare. I've been saying it all along, the end is near for Apple products, consumers are voting w/ their money!

[gmiller744]

These figures are completely misleading. Apple had the largest growth, shipped the most tablets, and made the most profit from it. There "percent" slipped because the market is diluted, and the percentage growth means nothing, because they shipped 7.4 mil more tablets this year (48% growth) and Samsung only shipped 5.7 mil more tablets this year (263% growth), but Apple had more growth than Samsung in real numbers.

[Ryth]

Hey look...ESTIMATES.

The only FACTUAL report in there is APPLE's SOLD.

Everything else is GUESSING and not FACTUAL.

... the only thing in the data that we can be sure about is that sales of Apple's iPad grew 48.1% year over year -- from 15.1 million to 22.9 million. We and IDC know this because Apple (AAPL) reported those unit sales figures last week

The rest of IDC's report is almost entirely guesswork. It says that Samsung shipped 7.9 million tablets -- up 263% -- but doesn't say how it got those numbers. Certainly not from Samsung, which hasn't released unit sales figures for any of its devices in years.

IDC also says that Amazon (AMZN) shipped 6 million Kindles -- up 26.8%. This despite the fact that Amazon has never once said how many Kindles it sold, a policy that remained conspicuously in force during Tuesday's Q4 2012 earnings call.

As for the rest of IDC's findings, they just get more bizarre. The press release says Barnes & Noble (BKS) "gained traction" in the tablet market, but the spreadsheet shows Nook sales falling year over year. Even more startling, the release says Asus lost share, while the spreadsheet shows Asus' market share nearly tripling on sales that grew 402.5%.

-CNNMoney

But hey...lets continue to believe reporting that is based on guesswork.

How standards have fallen.

[unlimitedx]

Originally Posted by gmiller744

These figures are completely misleading. Apple had the largest growth, shipped the most tablets, and made the most profit from it. There "percent" slipped because the market is diluted, and the percentage growth means nothing, because they shipped 7.4 mil more tablets this year (48% growth) and Samsung only shipped 5.7 mil more tablets this year (263% growth), but Apple had more growth than Samsung in real numbers.

agreed. more than one way put a spin on numbers!

[Stella]

It's obvious that has more tablets come to market so Apple will lose percentages.

No shocker here.

iPad mini is a great device, very good form factor. I'm not surprised its doing well.

[bushido]

time to reinvent the wheel again apple or at least give iOS a big revamp

[dazed]

Samsung has done an impressive job chipping away at Apples cool factor. Of course Apple has had many stumbles recently which didnt help.

I still like my ipad, no desire for anything else at moment

[Ryth]

Originally Posted by appletoandroid

Is this surprising? Lack of innovation leads to loss in marketshare. And people wonder why AAPL is falling. Growth in Samsung's innovations is remarkable, as they doubled their marketshare. I've been saying it all along, the end is near for Apple products, consumers are voting w/ their money!

There is no loss of marketshare. There is no proof of this because neither Amazon nor Samsung reports SOLD. This report is entirely guesswork.

[hexor]

Amazon doesn't even report kindles shipped and yet this company magically thinks they know.

[Ryth]

Originally Posted by dazed

Samsung has done an impressive job chipping away at Apples cool factor. Of course Apple has had many stumbles recently which didnt help.

I still like my ipad, no desire for anything else at moment

Again another person that didn't read the report and come out without seeing the facts.

[Zunjine]

People need to be very careful with these sorts of stats.

If I sell one unit in 2012 and four in 2013 I've had a 400% SURGE in growth! If I sell 4 million in 2012 and 6 million in 2013 I've only grown by a mere 50%.

If you look at actual increase in units shipped, Apple has grown faster than anyone else by a good deal.

The point is that the market leader will always lose market share as a market matures - this is inevitable.