Samsung, once again, ranked second in the global tablet market. It is also the world's biggest tablet brand in the Android segment, while Apple is comfortably leading the overall tablet market globally. While tablet sales fell in Q1 2023 compared to Q1 2022, the overall sales are still higher than pre-COVID-19 levels, which clearly shows that consumer demand for tablets has increased over the past few years.
Samsung is still the king of Android tablets
According to IDC's numbers, Samsung shipped 7.1 million tablets in Q1 2023, which is a 14.3% drop compared to Q1 2022. Apple shipped 10.8 million tablets during Q1 2023, which is a 10.2% drop compared to the same period last year. Huawei shipped 2 million tablets (around 6.6% market share), but its sales are still largely limited to the Chinese market. Lenovo saw a massive drop in shipments as it shipped just 1.9 million tablets in Q1 2023 compared to 3 million shipments the previous year.
Amazon, despite seeing a massive 62% drop, is somehow still in the top five rankings with 1.4 million shipments. It sells low-cost Fire series tablets with a custom version of Android largely in the US. With the launch of more tablets from the likes of OnePlus, OPPO, Realme, and Vivo, it looks like the tablet market has seen a much-needed refresh. Even Google will launch its first Pixel-branded Android tablet later this month.
Samsung will launch three more high-end tablets—Galaxy Tab S9, Galaxy Tab S9+, and Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra—sometime in July or August of 2023. These tablets are expected to bring impressive Super AMOLED screens and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 For Galaxy processor. The higher-end models will feature an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance.
