Samsung was the world's second-biggest tablet brand during Q1 2024. This is a good result, but the South Korean firm could have done better, as its sales have dropped slightly compared to the first quarter of last year. While Apple's sales also tanked, Chinese tablet makers managed to increase their sales.
Over 6.7 million Galaxy Tabs were shipped in Q1 2024
According to the latest figures from International Data Corporation (IDC), Samsung ranked second globally in terms of tablet sales. It shipped 6.7 million tablets during Q1 2024 and captured a 21.7% share of the market. That's 5.8% fewer shipments compared to Q1 2023. The company launched four affordable tablets—Galaxy Tab A9, Galaxy Tab A9+, Galaxy Tab S9 FE, and Galaxy Tab S9 FE+—in Q4 2023 and the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite (2024) in Q1 2024. So, most of its recent launches were affordable models, and it is expected to launch the Galaxy Tab S10 early next year.
Apple ranked first with shipments of 9.9 million iPads and a market share of 32%. Compared to Q1 2023, iPad sales tanked by 8.5%. It has been nearly a year and a half since Apple launched any iPad. However, it is expected to launch two new iPad Pros with OLED screens from Samsung and M4 chips and two new iPad Airs with the M2 chip tomorrow.
Huawei improved its tablet sales by an impressive 43.6% (likely mostly in China) to reach shipment figures of 2.9 million and a market share of 9.4%. Lenovo shipped 2.1 million tablets, reaching a market share of 7%. Its year-over-year growth stood at 13.2%, which is decent. Xiaomi showed a staggering improvement of 92.6% to reach tablet shipments of 1.8 million and a market share of 5.9%.
Overall, the tablet market improved by an insignificant margin (0.5%) compared to Q1 2024. Over 30.8 million tablets were shipped globally in Q1 2024. Other brands accounted for 24% of all tablet sales during the first quarter of this year.