Global tablet shipments fell 10% as vendors face supply constraints

New Delhi: Global tablet shipments fell 10 per cent (year-on-year) in the third quarter (Q3) as vendors felt the pinch of supply constraints, according to a new report.

Barring Apple and Lenovo, all other tablet players faced the supply chain constraints and their market share fell.

Apple iOS/iPadOS shipments (sell-in) grew 15 per cent to 17.3 million units in Q3 2021, with worldwide market share climbing 8 percentage points to 38 per cent, according to market research firm Strategy Analytics.

While remaining the top Android vendor, Samsung tablet shipments declined 23 per cent year-on-year to 7.5 million units and its market share declined to 17 per cent during the same period.

Lenovo tablet shipments showed the only year-on-year growth out of all Android vendors at 5 per cent to reach 4.3 million units.

Amazon Fire tablet shipments fell 24 per cent to 3.7 million units and Huawei tablet shipments fell 64 per cent to 1.8 million units in Q3.

"With a portfolio stocked with highly capable productivity tablets, Applea¿s strong growth came at the expense of other vendors competing for tight supplies," said Eric Smith, Director, Connected Computing.

Vendors selling Windows detachables like Lenovo, Dell, and HP showed healthy growth during the quarter as Microsoft was still working with an old portfolio of Surface devices.

"The China tablet market was hot in Q3 and vendor performance mirrored vendor access and brand perception in China. For example, Apple, Lenovo, Xiaomi, and Honor posted some of the strongest year-on-year growth rates while Samsung, Amazon, and Microsoft experienced growth rates declining by double digits," said Chirag Upadhyay, industry analyst.

As the pandemic disrupts life in different regions at different times, we expect supply to remain tight and demand to generally remain higher than pre-pandemic levels, he added.