Tablet Market Posts Strongest Growth in 7 Years

As 2020 dragged on, tablet vendors delivered much needed options to support learning and working from home, according to Strategy Analytics. Especially for users working within a tight budget, tablets are proving to be credible mobile computing alternatives to notebooks, as mobile computing demand showed double-digit year-on-year growth in 2020.

The market grew 18% in 2020 compared with 2019. It is the strongest recorded growth for the tablet market in the last seven years. Apple was the most successful vendor capturing 37% shipments growth YoY in the last quarter and 30% for the full 2020. Its market share went up from 27.8% in the last quarter in 2019 to 29.7% in the same period last year. Samsung was second, ahead of Amazon, Lenovo and Huawei. Also worth noting is the fact that Huawei was the only vendor that had lower numbers of shipments in the quarter.

“The new normal will start to emerge in 2021 as pandemic restrictions slowly fade away, but we fully expect work-from-home and learn-from-home will have won over fans among workers, students, companies, and educational institutions alike. How tablet vendors choose to address this urgent need for mobile productivity will depend on their unique set of strengths and weaknesses, but it is clear that they must fight even harder for revenue in this competitive environment. Risk remains for tablets to be outflanked by notebooks or smartphones in the future,“ said Eric Smith, Director of Connected Computing at Strategy Analytics.

Apple had a great holiday quarter, fulfilling consumer, commercial, and education demand. Several major Android vendors did as well or even better on an annual growth basis as Android tablets have a cost advantage over iPad. Amazon has great value at low cost and typically does very well during the holidays. Samsung and Lenovo had a very strong quarter of performance as their portfolios are wide-ranging, up-to-date, and innovative for entertainment and productivity needs.