iPad continues to dominate the tablet market in the 4th quarter of 2020

iPad continues to build on its success.

What you need to know

• Apple shipped 19.2 million iPads in the fourth quarter of 2020.
• It still leads the tablet market ahead of companies like Samsung, Dell, and Microsoft.

A new report from research firm Canalys confirms that Apple continued its dominance of the tablet industry in the fourth quarter of 2020. The company grew shipments 40% year over year to 19.2 million, with Samsung in a distant second.

Apple furthered its dominance in the tablet market, with Q4 shipments growing 40% to 19.2 million, its best iPad performance since Q4 2014. Samsung maintained second place in the market with 9.9 million tablets shipped, up 41% from Q4 2019. Amazon climbed to third place on the back of strong holiday season demand, shipping 6.5 million tablets. Lenovo was the fastest growing vendor in Q4, increasing sell-in volume by 125% to reach 5.6 million units. Huawei was the only vendor in the top 5 to see shipments decline year-on-year.

Canalys Analyst Ishan Dutt said that companies like Apple and Samsung made the correct bet on the tablet market and "tablets will be a crucial element of vendors' PC portfolios."

"The growth momentum enjoyed by tablets shows just how important easy access to computing power has become in the current time. Their versatility across, not just different form factors and price points, but also connectivity options, make them an ideal device across a variety of use-cases, from simple slates for e-learning and content consumption all the way to high-performance detachables for productivity users who are adapting to spending a larger proportion of time at home. Vendors like Microsoft, Dell and Lenovo reacted to the renewed interest in detachable tablets with a slew of announcements at CES 2021 focused on bringing better performance and connectivity to devices for an era of greater flexibility in work arrangements. Moving forward, tablets will be a crucial element of vendors' PC portfolios and vendors like Apple and Samsung that prioritized the category as others exited will find themselves in an enviable position."

On Apple's earnings call yesterday, the company also revealed that iPad set a new revenue record in Japan.