According to Canalys, Apple’s iPad continues to dominate worldwide tablet market as the Global PC market (including tablets) ended 2020 on a high, posting a third consecutive quarter of annual growth as shipments hit 143.7 million units in Q4, up 35% year-on-year. As a result, total shipments for 2020 grew 17% to reach 458.2 million units, the highest volume since 2015. On the back of a stellar performance in iPads, second-placed Apple managed to close the gap with Lenovo and shipped 26.4 million Macs and iPads in Q4, a total of 81.4 million units for the full year. HP, Dell and Samsung made up the rest of the top 5, with each posting double digit shipment growth in Q4 2020.
Apple furthered its dominance in the tablet market, with Q4 shipments growing 40% to 19.2 million, its best iPad performance since Q4 2014. Samsung maintained a distant second place in the market with 9.9 million tablets shipped, up 41% from Q4 2019. Amazon climbed to third place on the back of strong holiday season demand, shipping 6.5 million tablets. Lenovo was the fastest growing vendor in Q4, increasing sell-in volume by 125% to reach 5.6 million units. Huawei was the only vendor in the top 5 to see shipments decline year-on-year.
“The growth momentum enjoyed by tablets shows just how important easy access to computing power has become in the current time,” said Canalys Analyst Ishan Dutt, in a statement. “Their versatility across, not just different form factors and price points, but also connectivity options, make them an ideal device across a variety of use-cases, from simple slates for e-learning and content consumption all the way to high-performance detachables for productivity users who are adapting to spending a larger proportion of time at home… Moving forward, tablets will be a crucial element of vendors’ PC portfolios and vendors like Apple and Samsung that prioritized the category as others exited will find themselves in an enviable position.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s iPad is booming again thanks to the strongest lineup ever and a wide range of performance, features, and price points!
While I appreciate Canalys’ analysis, without concrete product “sales” number I personally think the numbers for Apple are much better. We’ve all heard and said it before, shipping doesn’t equal sales.
Also, who is the “Others” they list that has some magical 31% of the market? Yeah, not buying it and I want to see who “Others” is.
I just visited Levono’s website. Levono’s lineup is quite a mess. They have so many laptops of various sizes and designs running Windows or Chrome, a few are “convertible” into tablets. And there are dedicated tablets running Android. Levono is a conglomerator of parts.
In comparison, Apple’s lineup is coherent and focused, even during the Intel to Apple Silicon transition. And the products are integrated into an overall system that Apple owns. It’s not separate systems by Microsoft and Google running on Levono hardware.
Soon, Apple will be #1, offering the most desirable products no one else can match. Apple’s software running in Apple Silicon.