Amazon jumps ahead on tablet market, with Q3 shipment growth at over 140% - study

Apple was still the top tablet seller in the third quarter, with shipments growing 4 percent year-on-year to 10.1 million units, but Amazon leaped into second place, with shipments soaring 141 percent to 5.3 million units, from 2.2 million the year before, according to the latest study from Strategy Analytics. Samsung shipments fell in the quarter by 5 percent to 5.0 million while at Huawei, they slid 18 percent to 3.1 million. In fifth place, Lenovo posted an increase, of 8 percent to 2.5 million units. Shipments from other vendors meanwhile fell 27 percent to 12.1 million. In total, tablet in Q3 declined 4 percent to 38.2 million. 

As the market showed further signs of consolidation, Apple’s market share was by far the largest at 26.5 percent, up from 24.4 percent the year earlier, but Amazon made major inroads, with its share rising to 13.9 percent from 5.6 percent. Samsung’s share was virtually unchanged at 13.2 percent from 13.3 percent, but Huawei’s dipped lower to 8.1 percent from 9.5 percent. Lenovo lifted its market share to 6.6 percent from 5.9 percent. The share of other manufacturers meanwhile fell to under a third (31.6%) from 41.3 percent the year before. 

In terms of operating system, Android still led the market with a 60.5 percent share and 23.1 million devices shipped, from 61.3 percent and 24.4 million devices shipped. IOS increased its share to 26.5 percent from 24.4 percent, with shipments rising to 10.1 million from 9.7 million. Chrome took its market share to 0.3 percent from 0.0 percent, with shipments going to 0.1 million.