By John Kell
World-wide shipments of tablets jumped nearly 37% in the third
quarter from a year ago, with Android products again fueling much
of the growth in that segment, according to industry watcher
International Data Corp.
For the latest quarter, 47.6 million units were shipped, rising
7% from the previous quarter.
Shipments of Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPad inched up less than 1%
from a year earlier to 14.1 million units. IDC said Apple's slow
growth was partly due to a decision to move its product launches to
the fourth quarter, which caused its share of the market to fall to
the lowest point to date.
However, with Apple's iPad Air and a refreshed iPad mini
expected to begin shipping next month, IDC expects the tech giant
will see more robust shipment growth in the current quarter.
Samsung Electronics Co.'s (SSNHZ, 028050.SE) tablet shipments
totaled about 9.7 million units in the third quarter, more than
double the year-earlier levels. Samsung held 20.4% market share,
behind Apple's 29.6%.
Smaller players including ASUSTeK Computer Inc. (ASUUY, 2357.TW
), Lenovo Group Ltd. (0992.HK) and Acer Inc. (ACEIY, 2353.TW) also
reported sharply higher unit sales, though all three shipped fewer
than four million units each, thus grabbing small share of the
market.
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), meanwhile, again failed to crack the top
five tablet makers, according to IDC.
Write to John Kell at john.kell@wsj.com
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