The iPad Air was apparently the driving force behind Apple's solid Q1 2026 tablet market growth. | Image by PhoneArena
There are no prizes for guessing what tech giant led the worldwide tablet vendor ranks between January and March 2026, but when it comes to who made progress and whose sales figures slipped from the first quarter of 2025, it's a little harder to speculate and get every brand name right.
That's because the market is about as volatile as the smartphone landscape (or even more so in many ways), with the number two vendor, for instance, seeing its long-standing position threatened following multiple worrying drops in its volumes combined with encouraging successive improvements for two of its biggest challengers. But let's start at the beginning.
You can't touch Apple
With a 37.2 percent share in Q1 2025 and an even larger 40.1 percent slice of the global pie during the first three months of this year, Apple's tablet market supremacy remains untouched, unthreatened... and virtually impossible to threaten anytime soon.
That's a huge lead for Apple, and it's only grown larger over the last year. | Image by Omdia
Believe it or not, 40.1 percent is a lower score than what the company obtained in Q4 2024 (42.3 percent) and Q4 2025 (44.9 percent), but that's obviously not a fair comparison given that the holiday season often improves the demand for pretty much all of Apple's products around the world.
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In Q1 2026, the "iPad Air" is highlighted as its manufacturer's top performer by Omdia researchers today, although it's unclear if we're talking about the latest generation released towards the end of that very quarter or the 2025 duo (which received hefty discounts in many countries on the heels of its sequel's announcement). Or maybe both editions contributed to Apple's 7.9 percent growth in overall tablet sales between Q1 2025 and Q1 2026 in equal doses.
But Huawei and Lenovo's progress is even more impressive
Of course, it can be easier to boost your shipments by a larger margin than a rival when said shipments are lower to begin with, but it's definitely no small feat to post year-on-year gains of 28.1 percent and 20 percent in a market that's only up by 0.1 percent worldwide.
What's perhaps even more remarkable is that Huawei's 28.1 percent jump in sales in Q1 follows a Q4 2025 progress of 14.8 percent, while Lenovo's Q1 20 percent growth adds to the company's industry-leading boost of 36.2 percent registered in the previous quarter to move both brands within striking distance of Samsung.
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Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, as Samsung's lead over Huawei and Lenovo continues to look fairly comfortable, at 6.9 and 7.5 percent market shares respectively, but if the three companies remain on their recent paths of decline and progress, we could definitely see some important changes happening on the podium soon.
Samsung, mind you, dipped 12.6 percent in Q1 2026 compared to the same period of last year... after losing 9.2 percent of its sales between Q4 2024 and Q4 2025, which is clearly a very concerning trend for what's still the world's number one Android tablet vendor.
The market will likely shrink this year
Although faced with largely the same challenges as the global smartphone market, the tablet landscape could suffer a much smaller overall decline in 2026, as most major vendors are expected to primarily focus on the "premium segment", where demand has "held up better relative to the mass market."
The tablet market is hurting, but things could definitely be worse (and will likely get worse soon). | Image by Omdia
Following a microscopic 0.1 percent growth in Q1 2026, the tablet market has a "cautious" outlook ahead of it, but if Apple, Huawei, and Lenovo play their cards right (both in the premium and mid-range categories), I believe all three brands can end the year with improvements over their 2025 sales numbers. Perhaps not the biggest ones in history, but fairly meaningful nonetheless.
Samsung, Xiaomi, and "other" vendors, meanwhile, clearly need to change their ways to boost global demand, which is definitely not going to be easy at a time of component costs increases, but it still can be done with the right value approach and smart marketing efforts.
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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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