Worldwide tablet shipments unexpectedly thrived between July and September 2019, but the final three months of the year saw the market return to the negative trend that's been dominating the industry for the better part of a decade.
While Apple managed to substantially outperform the global tablet market as a whole with another big quarterly boost in iPad sales, Samsung, Huawei, Amazon, and "other" vendors posted shrinking Q4 numbers that were eventually bad enough to cause a small 0.6 percent dip in overall shipments compared to the last 90 days of 2018.
We're talking a grand total of 43.5 million tablets shipped around the world between October and December 2019, of which no less than 15.9 million units were iPads. That equates to a towering 36.5 percent share for Apple, up from "only" 29.6 percent in Q4 2018 and 31.4 percent during the third calendar quarter of last year.
Unsurprisingly, the newest report compiled by the International Data Corporation (IDC) is singling out the latest addition to the iPad lineup as Apple's main Q4 2019 growth driver. Even though it was met with skepticism by many reviewers and analysts, the seventh-gen non-Pro iPad (with a 10.2-inch screen) proved a pretty massive hit right out of the gate, accounting for nearly 65 percent of Apple's tablet shipments in the last three months of 2019.
Naturally, Apple dominated the full-year sales chart quite comfortably as well, with close to 50 million unit shipments and a 34.6 percent market share, up from 43.3 million units and a 29.6 percent slice of the pie in 2018.
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Samsung and Huawei took second and third place respectively both in Q4 and for the entire year, although their numbers declined pretty steeply compared to 2018. Curiously enough, Amazon had a solid 2019 overall, but a terrible final quarter, as Fire tablet shipments grew by almost 10 percent for the full 12 months while taking a massive year-over-year hit of 29 percent during Q4. Yes, we're talking about the three months that included all those Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and holiday promotions of all sorts, which apparently were not as successful this time around as back between October and December 2018.
Lastly, Lenovo was the only other top five vendor apart from Apple that reported a boost in tablet shipments for Q4, but said 8.3 percent growth was not enough to offset the company's losses during the previous nine months, which meant the year was closed with a 4.2 percent overall decline.
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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