Apple Continues to Dominate Tablet Market With an Estimated 19.2 Million Shipments in Q4 2020

[BigMcGuire]

For 2020 my iPad Pro 11 was my most used device, period. I read 15 books on it, and wrote notes via Apple Pencil in Notability.

I sold it to family to get an iPad Mini 5 only to wish I had the pencil and larger screen back... so returned the mini to get the 11 Pro again. I can’t live without this tablet. Using it now with a Bluetooth keyboard to type this.

I’m a heavy reader - this iPad with a matte screen protector is a perfect reading device. Apple has got it with iPads!

 

[ericwn]

By hybrids I meant devices that use an operating system designed for either phones (Android) or desktops (Windows), not an OS designed from the group up for the specific touch device itself. Don't get me wrong though, Samsung tablets and Dex are nice and I like Android, but they're still not there with the device optimization.

The iPad offers significant enhancements over an iPhone, especially today (like the Pencil). The iPad, and it's OS, SEEMS like a blown up iPhone but again it is designed from the ground up to be it's own thing, even before Apple changed the OS name. And Apple requires apps specific to the device as well (even if it will run iPhone apps).

Remember, Steve Jobs was working on the iPad BEFORE the iPhone. So in a sense, the iPhone has always been a dwarf iPad, not the other way around.

All fair points I think. Yes the iPad was Steve’s original vision and kudos to him for also realising the potential of the iPhone.

While the pencil has its role I wish there would be more to distinguish the two platforms from one another with more enhancements to what iPad can do. While I like mine a lot at times it just seemed as if the vision was a bit lacking on apples side.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

The mini benefitted from being the cheapest model in the lineup until the base iPad was introduced in 2017 (in fact I think it was the cheapest 3 models at one point!) so that probably drove quite a lot of sales on its own. Now it's more or less just a size option of the iPad Air (though seemingly on a different upgrade cycle).

Yeah that was the prevailing understanding of the device and its place in the lineup by people who didn't use one. They saw it as the cheap option, assumed people bought it because it was a budget iPad, and completely missed the difference in use as a mobile device, rather than a portable device like the rest of the iPad line.

 

[ericwn]

For 2020 my iPad Pro 11 was my most used device, period. I read 15 books on it, and wrote notes via Apple Pencil in Notability.

I sold it to family to get an iPad Mini 5 only to wish I had the pencil and larger screen back... so returned the mini to get the 11 Pro again. I can’t live without this tablet. Using it now with a Bluetooth keyboard to type this.

I’m a heavy reader - this iPad with a matte screen protector is a perfect reading device. Apple has got it with iPads!

Is there a matte screen protector you can recommend?

 

[BigMcGuire]

Is there a matte screen protector you can recommend?

ICarez! I’ve been using them for years. I don’t like it on the iPad mini 5 (older) but the iPhone 11 Pro Max, 12 Pro Max, and iPad 11 Pro (2018 or 2020) = perfection. Been using them for years. My wife saw my phone/iPad and asked me to get some for her - now she swears by them too.

I’m really picky too because I can sit and read for 6 hours at a time - so any distortion or “rainbow” effect usually gets me.

 

[The Game 161]

Be interested the sales of 12.9 compared to 11 inch

 

[ericwn]

ICarez! I’ve been using them for years. I don’t like it on the iPad mini 5 (older) but the iPhone 11 Pro Max, 12 Pro Max, and iPad 11 Pro (2018 or 2020) = perfection. Been using them for years. My wife saw my phone/iPad and asked me to get some for her - now she swears by them too.

I’m really picky too because I can sit and read for 6 hours at a time - so any distortion or “rainbow” effect usually gets me.

Thanks for the recommendation. I may give this a try for the next iPad. Has it made a positive impact on your reading on this device?

 

[BigMcGuire]

Thanks for the recommendation. I may give this a try for the next iPad. Has it made a positive impact on your reading on this device?

Massive for me. I had a Kindle years ago and devoured books on it but I ran into problems with battery life and ability to read books that had anything other than text. The iCarez screen protector makes it so I can read next to a bright window without having problems - often times I'm in dark mode with black backgrounds and white text so that may affect me more than most.

Now early versions of iCarez were a bit too rainbow'y for me. For example the iPad mini 5 iCarez - I can't stand that - has way too much of a rainbow effect. But the iPad Pro 11 2018 works perfect for me - same for the iPhone one (for the 11 Pro Max and 12 Pro max).

Definitely a big reason for me to shift all my book reading to my iPad. Has seriously helped with eye fatigue.

 

[Digitalguy]

Man the number of fanboy comments on this thread... But, wait, we are on Macrumors, what was I expecting? By the way, some disagrees or haha to this comments are expected too... Most of the people who trashed on Samsung have probably never tried, let alone owned, one of the latest Samsung flagships. Personally I am glad that Samsung is doing its best, given the lack of premium android tablets, to offer some competition in that segment.
I have the iPad pro 11, the 12.9 and the mini 5, but also the Tab S7+. They are all quite complementary. Overall, the iPad is a better device, but not by huge margin. I wish Apple could take quite a few of the things for which the Tab S7+ is superior to the iPad.... (and that's precisely why I bought it, because some hardware or software features in the iPad are missing...some will come over time, others probably never...). Sure it's a luxury to have all of them and if I had to choose I would only keep on of the iPad pros (which again is, all things considered, the better device), but fortunately I don't have to choose and bear with the limitations/compromises of each tablet.

 

[MacBH928]

Other than the 64% of competitors on the chart, totally correct.

well..even the iPod had Zune and Creative mp3 players

 

[ericwn]

well..even the iPod had Zune and Creative mp3 players

Oh I remember those well. Together they made maybe 5-10% of the market at best if measured by their combined marketing departments. I used creative prior to iPod and they were clunky crap in my opinion.

 

[TracesOfArsenic]

I wish they gave "iPad"OS some love though. It could be so much more capable.