Apple iPad sales up in Western Europe as all other tablets decline

New research claims that Apple's iPad sales rose 33% in Western Europe in Q3 2021, even as the market declined 20% year over year.

Apple's continued launches of new iPads has reportedly helped it see a rise in sales for the quarter across Western Europe. According to Canalys, as that market declined to a total of 6.9 million units shipped, Apple's rise saw it take 45% of all tablet sales.

"In Q3 2020, tablets had an extraordinary performance as they filled a gap created by PCs shortages," said Canalys research analyst Trang Pham. "They are now seeing a corrective decline as penetration within the primary userbase saturates."

"The iPad's consistent performance today is thanks to Apple's dedicated focus on the tablet market," continued Pham. "Apple continues to launch newer iPads throughout the year catering to more customer segments. Despite the crunch, Apple's vertically integrated supply chain has insulated it well from bearing the brunt of the corrective decline."

Tablet sales in Western Europe for Q3 2021 (source: Canalys)

Canalys also reports that PC sales in Western Europe have now been trending upwards for six consecutive quarters. "The numbers prove a continuous demand for PC devices," said Pham.

"This isn't just about fulfilling backlog orders anymore," she continued, "but about managing a longer-term demand and this is good news for every single vendor operating in the market."

For Western Europe, Q3 2021 saw an 8% growth in PC sales YoY. HP regained the top spot, followed by Lenovo, Dell, and then Apple.

6 Comments

beowulfschmidt 2349 comments · 12 Years

About 2 years ago

This is obviously due to Apple's unfair and monopolistic practices. Something must be done!

/s

crowley 10431 comments · 15 Years

Very surprised that Samsung are even that high, their tablets are trash garbage. And are Microsoft seriously not on that list? Maybe I'm in a UK IT bubble, but I see a fair few Surfaces around, far more than anything else bar iPads. Or do Surfaces not count as tablets for some reason?

maciekskontakt 1168 comments · 15 Years

crowley said:

Very surprised that Samsung are even that high, their tablets are trash garbage. And are Microsoft seriously not on that list? Maybe I'm in a UK IT bubble, but I see a fair few Surfaces around, far more than anything else bar iPads. Or do Surfaces not count as tablets for some reason?

Yet they are cheap and for most people that counts. Every tablet on this list is for different purpose and when you say Microsoft Surface that is yet another class of tablets and competes with laptops - not even with iPad Pro. If you say trash about tablets then tell in what category. Android tablets are mainly for Netflix and streaming services and they do it very well. Amazon tablets are for reading books and they were designed this way from originally failed product. iPad's are more for gaming and other apps, but it is closed ecosystem. Saying "trash" is meaningless unless you understand that tablet is not equal another tablet in terms of purpose. So far only Apple with iPad aimed in all categories, but still not close to Microsoft Surface when it comes to professional work with laptop like workload.

beowulfschmidt said:

This is obviously due to Apple's unfair and monopolistic practices. Something must be done!

/s

Hogging production lines like semiconductors has been known strategy to disable competition for many years.

Japhey 1772 comments · 6 Years

maciekskontakt said:

crowley said:

Very surprised that Samsung are even that high, their tablets are trash garbage. And are Microsoft seriously not on that list? Maybe I'm in a UK IT bubble, but I see a fair few Surfaces around, far more than anything else bar iPads. Or do Surfaces not count as tablets for some reason?

Yet they are cheap and for most people that counts. Every tablet on this list is for different purpose and when you say Microsoft Surface that is yet another class of tablets and competes with laptops - not even with iPad Pro. If you say trash about tablets then tell in what category. Android tablets are mainly for Netflix and streaming services and they do it very well. Amazon tablets are for reading books and they were designed this way from originally failed product. iPad's are more for gaming and other apps, but it is closed ecosystem. Saying "trash" is meaningless unless you understand that tablet is not equal another tablet in terms of purpose. So far only Apple with iPad aimed in all categories, but still not close to Microsoft Surface when it comes to professional work with laptop like workload.

Nah, he’s right. Samsung and Amazon tablets are crap. I have family members that own piles of the things, and I wouldn’t even use them to prop up a wobbly table. If they are each good for one single purpose, then how can they seriously be mentioned in the same sentence as the Surface or iPad and not be considered crap? My 8-year old iPad mini outperformed all of them before I traded it in.