Shane Cole
The second quarter of calendar 2013 saw Apple's share of sales in the Chinese tablet market drop significantly, to less than 30 percent, according to the latest data released by research firm IDC.
Despite losing its traditionally ironclad grip on the market — Apple has, to date, usually maintained more than 50 percent market share in China — the Cupertino company shipped nearly 3 times as many tablets as rival Samsung, its closest competitor. Apple took in a 28 percent share on 1.5 million units shipped, according to IDG News Service, while Samsung rang in with an 11 percent share while shipping 571,000 units.
Lenovo came in third with 8 percent on shipments of 413,000 units, and Asus, Acer, Huawei, Teclast, Onda, ZTE, and Microsoft rounded out the top 10 with 1 percent each. Notably, Amazon — whose Kindle Fire tablet officially debuted on the mainland in June — brought home less than one percent of the market in its inaugural quarter.
IDC analyst Dickie Chang attributed the lag in iPad shipments, down from 3 million in the first quarter, to inventory draw downs ahead of a hardware refresh. New versions of the iPad and iPad Mini are widely expected before the important holiday quarter.
The report went on to note that an uptick in demand for tablets running Google's Android operating system benefited not only electronics powerhouses Samsung and Lenovo, but also little-known "white box" vendors - low-volume manufacturers who market low-cost, feature-laden tablets.
“[The consumers] can use Android tablets from Samsung, Lenovo, or others from small white box vendor guys because the price is cheap," said Chang. "Some of these Android tablets, like those from Chinese vendor Onda, can start as low as 699 yuan ($113), and come built with a quad-core processor, 8-inch screen, and 5-megapixel camera."
The iPad's decline in China continues a recent trend for Apple as consumers around the world increasingly opt for Android tablets or Microsoft's Surface devices. An IDC report from early August showed Apple's worldwide shipments sliding by 14.1 percent year over year, while the company's worldwide tablet market share fell from 60.3 percent to 32.4 percent in the same period.
Andrew O'Hara
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63 Comments
Cheap models grow ... as HP did in the past ... till bancrupsy.
Do these percentages add up to 100% for the quarter? Seems barely to add up to 60% with what is shown.
Mmm this anal-yst failed to point out the current iPad is in end of life and due to be refreshed this falls. Besides, cheap knock-off will always get the lion shares in term of units, not so much in terms of profit for content developers on theses platform.
Do these percentages add up to 100% for the quarter? Seems barely to add up to 60% with what is shown.
I wondered about the same thing. If the "white boxed" product was taking over, as the article says, then the "other" bar should have picked up the slack and been the tallest bar on the chart...???
Oh well, in 90 to 120 days the "white boxed" product will have died and Apple will be there to offer something new and improved.
"During the quarter, 46 percent of all tablet shipments to China came from vendors IDC classified as %u201Cothers%u201D, which individually claimed a market share of less than one percent. Many of these vendors included small white box device makers, as well as Amazon, which began selling its Kindle Fire tablet in China in June." In other words, China does what China does. Buy tank loads of cheap crap that is being palmed off as being "more or less" just like the expensive premium items. Then said items electrocute the user. The rest of the world feigns shock.