IDC has released a brand new quarterly tracking report for tablets, which focuses on the evolution of the Chinese tablet market in Q2 2020. The market involved 6.61 million units shipped in that time frame, a year on year increase of 17.7%. And that’s in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Apple returns to the number one position in the country, as the iPad shipments of Q2 were approximately 2.76 million units, an increase of 18.7% year on year. The company has a 41.8% market share and it’s followed by Huawei with the highest year on year increase. Huawei’s tablet shipments in China in Q2 2020 were 2.45 million units, a year on year increase of 59.5%. Their market share is 37.1%. The tablet market is also divided into format segments, like slate tablets (2.69 million units), detachable tablets (3.92 million units).
Slates grew by 41.6% and detachables by 286%. The Chinese companies have overcome the earlier part of the year when they had production problems because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the closing of factories. It appears that China’s tablet PC market shipments for the first half of 2020 dropped by 5.4% compared to the same period last year. IDC seems to think the suspension of production because of the pandemic restricted shipments in the first half of the year.
However, the market demand has increase on account of people learning and working from home. The Chinese tablet market is described in the report as “dormant” prior to the pandemic, but it got a boost afterwards. After the capacity problem was solved, the consumer market shipped around 5.61 million units, a year on year increase of 25.9%. Market demand was steady and more new models were released, boosting the demand for the second half of the year.
Main players in the market include aside from Apple, Huawei, also Microsoft and Lenovo. It’s odd that Samsung doesn’t get much credit here.
