Of these, Apple shipped 12.7 million tablets, making up a 31.7% slice of the market. That means that approximately one out of every three tablets shipped in the quarter was an iPad. Provided the IDC figures are accurate, Apple even managed to outperform the already strong tablet growth market average, by showcasing a massive 64.3% year-on-year increase.
Ranking the Tablet Makers
According to Apple’s recently reported earnings, iPad sales soared by close to 79% to reach $7.80 billion during the quarter.
Anuroopa Nataraj, research analyst with IDC’s Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers, said that:
No, This Doesn’t Reflect M1 iPad Pro
It’s worth noting that—for somewhat obvious reasons—Apple’s exciting new iPad Pro, the first iPad to boast Apple’s M1 Apple Silicon chip, doesn’t factor into these shipment figures. That new tablet was only unveiled this month at Apple’s Spring Loaded event. It is scheduled to arrive in the second half of May, with the first units probably shipping out to customers on or around May 21.
Given that Bloomberg has reported that some of the high-end iPad Pro units won’t ship to customers until sometime in July, after the end of Q2, we may well be waiting for as long as October before we get a sense of what the new iPad Pro means for Apple’s overall tablet sales.
With COVID (hopefully) less of a factor than ever by then, it will be interesting to see whether the pandemic “working-from-home” boost to tablet sales continues when things start getting back to normal.
