The latest IDC report has revealed the growth of the tablet industry – which is dominated by Apple – during the second quarter of 2024.
Tablet shipments recorded growth of 22.1 percent in the second quarter of 2024 (2Q24) to 34.4 million units.
The growth in the tablet industry was driven by product refreshes from top vendors and a replacement cycle combined with inventory replenishment.
Apple (12.3 million), Samsung (6.9 million), Lenovo (2.5 million), Huawei (2.3 million), and Xiaomi (2 million) are the top five tablet suppliers during the second-quarter.
Apple’s shipment of tablet grew by 18.2 percent to 12.3 million units in the quarter. Apple has gained from the launch of 11” and 13” iPad Air and iPad Pro models. Apple has achieved iPad volumes growth across the globe except for China. Apple faced competition from tablet supplier such as Huawei and Xiaomi in China.
Samsung’s tablet shipments rose 18.6 percent to 6.9 million units in 2Q24. Samsung did not have any major product launches. Samsung achieved growth in its tablet business mainly from several commercial deployments.
Lenovo has achieved growth of 16.7 percent and shipments of 2.5 million units. Lenovo recorded much higher annual growth in detachable tablets (39.7 percent) than its slate tablets (11.7 percent).
Huawei achieved growth of 40.3 percent and shipments of 2.3 million units. Huawei introduced a new tablet, MatePad 11.5S, which has shown great market performance and the June online promotions in China further aided growth.
Xiaomi’s tablet shipments grew 94.7 percent to 2 million units. Beyond China and Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan), Xiaomi has made significant gains in the European market with impressive growth in Russia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and many other countries.
IDC says it expects the refresh cycle and growth in emerging markets to continue aiding the recovery in the near term.
“While new tablet entrants to the market focus on their global expansion, leaders focus on improving technology (as in the case of OLED displays for iPad Pros), catering to the need for premium devices, and utilizing the power of emerging technologies like AI,” said Anuroopa Nataraj, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers.
