Since Q1 2020 is over, we started seeing more and more companies that announced their results for the whole fiscal year 2019. We also learn that Apple once gain reigns supreme in the tablet market, as the iPad held a 44% share of the market for the whole of 2019. We have more details below.
The info came this Tuesday, as Strategy Analytics released a report detailing the global tablet market. The report actually focused on leading chip designers whose application processors (AP) power tablets. Apple had a 44% share, which was to be expected, since they make chips for their own tablets, or better said they design them and TSMC makes them. Qualcomm and Intel were next with 16% of the market, while MediaTek and Samsung were in the “Others” section with 24%. The tablet market has been perceived as declining for about half a decade now, on account of the longer replacement cycles and general lack of innovation from companies.
Some just find a niche and stick to it, like Microsoft with the premium/business Surface or Amazon with its affordable models. The 2019 Tablet AP revenue share was 1.9 billion dollars in 2019, as the whole segment grew 2% year on year in 2019. Keep in mind that if you’re really being a stickler for facts and numbers, the Strategy Analytics report focuses on the value of chips produced and used on devices, not the actual quantity produced. In reality I think that Apple remains on the first spot, followed by Samsung and Huawei, then maybe Lenovo, Microsoft and Amazon.
In Q3 2019 Apple had a market share of 38.1% in the tablet segment and actually registered growth compared to 2018. With the new iPad Pro models and a potential cheap iPad this fall, the percentage can only grow. We’ll have to wait for IDC figures to properly judge the market.
