Apple’s iPad now has 35% of the global tablet market

Hybrid work and more digitized classrooms continue to drive record tablet demand midway through 2021, as Apple, Samsung, Lenovo, and Amazon all posted strong results, according to a new report by Strategy Analytics. iPad shipments grew 11% year-on-year to 15.8 million units in the second quarter, notes the research group.

This saw Apple’s global market share grow 1.8 percentage points to 35%. Samsung is the leading Android vendor, shipping 8.2 million tablets in total and growing 19% year-on-year in quarter two of 2021 on a diverse portfolio of entertainment tablets and productivity detachables. Market share increased by 2.1 percentage points to 18% during the same period.

Despite the record table growth, supply constraints negatively affected some major vendors from meeting high demand slightly earlier than expected, raising questions about what the second half of the year will bring, according to Strategy Analytics. As the COVID pandemic remains a key concern around the world, this tension between high demand and low component supply will test vendors and their channel partners as both Back to School and winter holiday shopping looms, adds the research group.