Apple still leads the market share even though Samsung, which came back in second place, saw a significant increase in sales last year. Samsung, having a 19.1 percent share of the global tablet market in 2020, after shipping 31.3 million units, up 44.4 percent from last year. Apple is back at the top after shipping 53.2 million iPads, up 6.7 percent from the previous year, with a 32.5 percent market share in 2020. However, Samsung managed to close the distance with Apple. In 2019, Samsung’s market share was 15 percent, while Apple’s was 34.6 percent. “Meanwhile, vendors’ earnest efforts to make Android more productive and usable in a detachable form have helped the brand maintain its position above other Android competitors,” added IDC. Chinese tech company Huawei maintained its third position, even though its market share fell 10.2 percent to 9.8 percent, after shipping 16 million tablets in 2020. In the fourth quarter alone, Huawei saw tablet shipments drop by 25.7 percent following US sanctions, according to IDC. Lenovo was fourth with a market share of 8.9 percent after shipping 14.1 million tablets, up 66.4 percent from a year earlier. In 2020, IDC said the worldwide tablet market grew 13.6 percent to 164.1 million units, triggered by a pandemic that is driving demand for tablets.
