The Covid-19 pandemic has kept people in their houses, a move which has changed the way we work, learn and play. It also changed tablet sales significantly, bringing forth a boost to the segment. PC and laptop makers also had higher sales during this period. According to a new Canalys report, the tablet market grew 26% on a yearly basis during Q2 2020.
All the big players from top 5 recorded an increase in shipments in this period. Apple remains first, moving 14.2 million slates in Q2, followed by Samsung with 7 million and Huawei with 4.7 million. Amazon and Lenovo complete the top 5. Everybody grew, Apple by 19.8%, Samsung by 39.2% and Huawei by 44.5%. According to Ben Stanton, Senior Analyst at Canalys, vendors, carriers and retailers have been offering special discounts for people in order to motivate them to buy slates.
Some are offering things like 60 days of unlimited data for education tablets or faster online deliveries and more affordable carrier plans. After a long period of tablets not doing so well, the pandemic made everyone in the household need a separate new screen. The kids couldn’t use dad’s tablet for e-learning and the grandma also needed a different slate. The prices are lower than the laptop and desktop ones, so that’s probably also an argument.
The trend is expected to continue in Q3 and Q4 2020, probably also in 2021, as we head into a world focused on e-learning.
