Tablet sales keep falling, Apple still leads
Tablet sales fell 10% in 2023 compared to 2022, according to newly released data from Canalys. For the full year, 135.3 million tablets got sold. Apple still leads, as you’d expect, with a whopping 40% market share from its 54 million shipments.
Its market share stayed about flat compared to 2022 when it had 40.4% of the pie, and it’s a similar story for Samsung, which is No.2 – its 25.6 million shipments last year gave it 19% of the pie, compared to 19.3% the year before.
In third is Lenovo with 9.3 million sales, grabbing 6.9% market share, down from 7.7% in 2022. Next up, Huawei, with 8.3 million shipments and 6.1% market share, and Amazon with 7.7 million sold for a 5.8% share.
Amazon saw the biggest decline in market share, as it had 9.1% in 2022, while Huawei was the only brand in the Top 5 to see any kind of growth – it used to have just 4.2% of the market in 2022.
For the fourth quarter of 2023, Huawei snatched the third position from Lenovo, otherwise the standings are the same. Apple moved 14.8 million devices from October to December for a 39.2% market share, followed by Samsung with 6.8 million shipments grabbing 18% of the pie. Huawei sold 2.8 million units and Lenovo managed 2.6 million, while Amazon rounded up the Top 5 with 2 million.
Compared to Q4 2022, only Huawei and Lenovo saw growth – a whopping 95.4% for the former, 14.9% for the latter. Apple’s sales fell 24%, Samsung’s by 10%, and Amazon’s by 43.9%. The overall tablet market in Q4 saw sales fall 11% to 37.8 million units.
According to Canalys researchers, China and India drove sales helping to counter “prevailing stagnation” in other parts of the world. Interestingly, the analysts expect the tablet market to rebound this year, driven by “healthier inventory levels and further scope for government and commercial deployments”. Additionally, this year will see “a greater focus” on foldable tablets, even though shipment numbers won’t be very high due to their predictably premium pricing.