Tablet Sales
Although the size of worldwide tablet market fell to a record low in three and a half years, China’s Huawei showed a rapid increase in sales.
According to the U.S.-based market research firm Strategy Analytics on May 8, Huawei sold 2.1 million tablets in the first quarter, up 66 percent from 1.3 million units during the same period. The company jumped to fifth place in terms of market share with a 4.5 percent share, chasing down Lenovo with 4.6 percent share.
On the other hand, both Apple and Samsung Electronics, previous leading producers in the market, showed the decrease in sales. Apple sold 10.3 million tablets in the first quarter, down 20 percent from 12.6 million units a year earlier, while Samsung Electronics saw its sales drop 26 percent to 6.5 million units.
Moreover, sales of Lenovo, the third largest player in the market, and ASUS, the sixth largest, also plunged by as much as 15 percent and 17 percent, respectively.
White Box topped the list, though its total sales declined by 10 percent to 13.3 million units. A white box is a customized personal computer or server assembled by small companies without a well-known brand name.
The global tablet market declined 10 percent to 46.5 million units in the first quarter from 51.9 million units at the same period a year ago, showing the lowest recorded amount since the third quarter in 2012.
The tablet market has been shrinking in earnest after posting some 10 percent of degrowth for the first time in the fourth quarter last year.
By operating system (OS), Android grabbed the most market share as it sold 30 million tablets. Apple's iOS-powered iPad's market share declined 19 percent to 10.3 million units from a year earlier.
On the other hand, sales of Microsoft’s Windows-powered tablets grew a whopping 82 percent to 6.2 million units in a year, increasing its market share to as much as 13 percent.