Apple pioneered the tablet device market and has had a headstart on its competitors for years, opening up a huge lead in the number of devices sold. That gap is gradually closing, however, and the latest statistics to support this comes from ABI Research who has just released its latest findings. According to the findings, in the first quarter of 2014, Apple still led with 16.4 million units shipped with Samsung in second place with 13 million units shipped, marking the first time the two giants have been so close in these figures. The key here is that Apple’s shipments in this quarter were actually down by 10.1% since a year ago, whereas Samsung has experienced a 10.80% increase in the same period.
Interestingly, while Android has a market share of tablet shipments totalling 56.3%, Samsung and Apple alone made up for 71.3% of the 41.3 million tablets shipped in Q1 this year. To put that in perspective, ASUS, who is a distant third in these standings, shipped 2.1 million tablets in Q1, which already takes into account the Nexus 7 tablets. Tablets may remain iOS’ realm for another quarter, but it won’t be long before Samsung overtakes them in the near future, and hopefully the other Android manufacturers can take a bit more of the cake too.
What do you think about these tablet figures? Are you surprised an any of these numbers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Source: ABI Research via Phone Arena
