If you bought a tablet during lockdown, chances are that it’s in your closet now. After the tablet market’s second wind a few years ago, it’s back on the fall, it seems. A new report from IDC states that tablet shipments showed a decline in 2022.
During the peak of Covid-19 lockdowns, the tablet market saw a breath of fresh air. It saw a massive surge in business as people needed devices to keep them busy. However, now that things have cooled, people no longer need tablets as urgently.
Tablet shipments showed a sharp decline in 2022
The numbers are in, and they’re not great. In Q42022, the tablet market showed a slight growth of 0.3% over Q42021. There were about 45.7 million units shipped in Q42022, which is a slight increase from the 45.6 million units shipped a year before.
While there was a slight increase, shipments for the year as a whole dropped 3.3%. In 2022, tablet shipments sat at 162.8 million units, and that’s down from 168.2 million units in 2021. The report, however, says that the numbers remain above pre-pandemic levels. This means that tablet sales aren’t quite as bad as before the pandemic.
How did the companies do?
Most of this information shouldn’t be a surprise. The numbers remain pretty consistent for the most part. At the top of the pecking order is Apple with its iPad series. It lapped up about 49.2% of the market last quarter (22.5 million units). That’s a massive 28.8% increase from 38.8% in Q4 2021 (17.5 million units). Apple held 38% of the market for the full year (61.8 million units).
Samsung came in second place with 16.8% of the market in Q4 2022 (7.7 million units). That’s a decent 7.1% increase from 15.8% in Q4 2021 (7.2 million units). Samsung held 18.6% of the market in 2022 as a whole (30,3 million units).
The next notable player is Amazon, and its fire tablets didn’t fare the best last year. In Q4 2022, it captured 5.4% of the market (2.5 million units). That’s down 31.1% from Q4 2021 (7.9 million units). The company held 9.8% of the market last year as a whole (16 million units).
Lenovo and Huawei both shipped 2.3 million units last quarter and both captured 5.1% of the market separately. Lenovo saw a 49.9% dip from 10.0% in Q4 2021, and Huawei saw an 8.6% dip from 5.5%. For the whole year, Lenovo and Huawei had 7.1% and 5.6% of the market, respectively.
The rest of the companies made up the “Other” category, and they made up 18.4% in Q4 2022 (8.4 million units). That’s a 17.3% drop from Q42021’s 22.4% (10.2 million units). They made up 20.9% of the market in 2022 as a whole (34 million units).