Apple continues to dominate tablet market with 19.2M iPads shipped in Q4 2020

Apple retained its top spot in the worldwide tablet industry during the fourth quarter of 2020, shipping an estimated 19.2 million iPad models in the period.

According to new data from analysis firm Canalys, iPad shipments grew 40% year-over-year. The company's share of the global tablet market in Q4 2020 — which corresponds to Apple's Q1 2021 — was 36%.

Apple's lead is strong in the market, too. The company's closest rival, Samsung, came in second with 19% and an estimated 9.9 million tablet shipments. Amazon, in third place, came in with 12% of the market and 6.5 million shipments.

Across all of 2020, Canalys estimates that Apple shipped about 58.8 million tablets, a 24% increase from 2019. It maintained a 37% market share during the year, well ahead of Samsung's 19% and Huawei's 10%.

In addition to the tablet numbers, Canalys' report also offered data on the worldwide PC market, which combines personal computers, tablets, and Chromebooks.

Apple clocked in second in the PC market behind Lenovo. The Cupertino tech giant shipped 26.4 million PC and tablet units in Q4 2020, representing annual growth of 42%. It had an 18% share of the market, just shy of Lenovo's 20%.

Throughout 2020, the data suggests that Apple shipped a total of 81.4 million iPad and Mac models.

Although Apple no longer reports individual unit sales, the company on Wednesday shared its results for Q4 2020 (its Q1 2021). In addition to record-breaking total revenue, Apple reported all-time holiday quarter records for the Mac and 41% growth in iPad revenue.

4 Comments

sdw2001 17459 comments · 23 Years

About 3 years ago

I’ve said it for years. There is no real tablet market, especially in the U.S. There is an *iPad* market and then iPad alternatives. The same isn’t true for PC’s or even smartphones. There is a smartphone market where Apple and Samsung duke it out, with others like Huawei and Google in the mix. Obviously there is a PC market. But the iPad is a household name.

KidGloves 37 comments · 6 Years

"I would shut down Apple and give the money back to the shareholders.”

My mum has an 'iPad' as she calls it. It's made by Acer and is a piece of junk. She likes it though. I bought her a proper iPad for Christmas so the whole family can FaceTime and she's blown away with it. The comparison is night and day. I would like to know the tablet Apple vs Android comparison in revenue share

terms. So many non-iPad tablets are low powered, low quality efforts that cost half or even less of the cheapest iPad.

I would guess that Apple has 60%-70% of all tablet revenue. I have to say that the latest iPad really are excellent.

cloudguy 323 comments · 4 Years

sdw2001 said:

I’ve said it for years. There is no real tablet market, especially in the U.S. There is an *iPad* market and then iPad alternatives. The same isn’t true for PC’s or even smartphones. There is a smartphone market where Apple and Samsung duke it out, with others like Huawei and Google in the mix. Obviously there is a PC market. But the iPad is a household name.

Though this report does its best to obfuscate it - by adding Apple's tablet and PC sales together - Samsung sold nearly 10 million more tablets than Apple sold Macs. Mac sales: 22.6 million. Samsung tablet sales: 31 million. Chromebook sales: 30.6 million (despite supply shortages most of the year). Based on that, is it fair to say "there is no real Mac market especially outside the U.S. media and creative industries"?

KidGloves said:

My mum has an 'iPad' as she calls it. It's made by Acer and is a piece of junk. She likes it though. I bought her a proper iPad for Christmas so the whole family can FaceTime and she's blown away with it. The comparison is night and day. I would like to know the tablet Apple vs Android comparison in revenue share terms. So many non-iPad tablets are low powered, low quality efforts that cost half or even less of the cheapest iPad.

I would guess that Apple has 60%-70% of all tablet revenue. I have to say that the latest iPad really are excellent.

Yeah, great apples to apples - pun maybe intended - comparison there. Acer exited the Android tablet and phone market to focus on ChromeOS and Windows gaming laptop markets years ago - more on this later - so this "Acer tablet" has to be at least 5 years old! How about comparing it to last year's Samsung S6 Lite or the Lenovo Tab M10 Plus? Yes, both have their premium tablets. Lenovo has the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro for $599. The Samsung
Galaxy Tab S7+ launched at $1050 for their 5G-enabled 128 GB models. Who buys them? Practically no one in America, granted. But in Asia lots of people do. I have mentioned previously: in Asia Android is the #1 gaming platform. So much so that Intel actually released a cloud data center product centered entirely around Android gaming: https://www.zdnet.com/article/intel-debuts-gpu-for-the-data-centre-with-a-focus-on-android-cloud-gaming with Tencent and other companies involved on the SaaS, PaaS and IaaS side, forcing Google to release their own: https://www.slashgear.com/google-developing-new-android-called-microdroid-27657079/. So that is where the bulk of the 63% of the Android tablet sales are going.
FaceTime is Apple-proprietary software, so listing that as a reason why Android tablet hardware and operating systems are "junk" isn't accurate. I will point out that Google Duo serves that need quite good on Android tablets, and that yes Google Duo is actually widely used outside the U.S. Similar is true of Google Meet also. So no matter how often the Apple crowd tries to dismiss them, Android tablets are a thing. At this point, the only real threat to Android tablets ... are ChromeOS tablets! Lenovo's best selling tablet last year by a mile was the ChromeOS Duet, which outside Asia sold more than all their Android and Windows tablets combined. HP, Dell, Asus and the aforementioned Acer - all of whom abandoned Android tablets years ago - have Qualcomm based ChromeOS tablets and 2-in-1s coming in 2021, along with a 5G-enabled Lenovo one (whether it will run Qualcomm also or will be a MediaTek-based device Lenovo hasn't said, and they probably haven't decided). If they succeed then Samsung - who strongly prefers Android tablets for business reasons - will be forced to make a similar Qualcomm or Exynos ChromeOS device, which would prove VERY POPULAR with the people who buy their phones.
Another reason why ChromeOS tablets could threaten Android ones: gaming. Google and Valve are working to bring official Steam support to ChromeOS by mid-2021, and this will include Proton, which is Steam's fork of the Windows WINE emulator (for Windows Steam game compatibility). Both Intel and AMD are coming out with "CPU with discrete GPU but on the same chip" designs in 2021 and especially 2022. The AMD version will be on a 5nm process. The Intel version will debut on a 10nm process ... but with big.LITTLE design that would be very practical for a fanless 2-in-1 ChromeOS device. Which means that starting in 2022 we are going to get ChromeOS tablets than can run not only Android games but Steam ones.

Yes, that would pretty much kill off the Android tablet market. But only to replace it with a ChromeOS tablet market that is much bigger.

MacPro 19838 comments · 18 Years

sdw2001 said:

I’ve said it for years. There is no real tablet market, especially in the U.S. There is an *iPad* market and then iPad alternatives. The same isn’t true for PC’s or even smartphones. There is a smartphone market where Apple and Samsung duke it out, with others like Huawei and Google in the mix. Obviously there is a PC market. But the iPad is a household name.

I've not even seen anything else but iPads for years.

Same with Laptops. Travelling through airports ... well, from what I remember ... MacBooks everywhere and once in a while a Dell laptop.

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