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Apple's iPad China market share plummets, analyst says

The company's tablet market share was at 49 percent last year, but dropped to 28 percent in the second quarter of 2013.

Don Reisinger
CNET contributor Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has covered everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Besides his work with CNET, Don's work has been featured in a variety of other publications including PC World and a host of Ziff-Davis publications.
Don Reisinger
Apple

Apple's iPad is losing some of its appeal to Chinese consumers, new data shows.

Speaking to Bloomberg via e-mail on Wednesday, IDC researcher Dickie Chang revealed that the iPad's tablet market share in China has fallen from 49 percent in the second quarter of 2012 to 28 percent in the same period this year. Samsung, meanwhile, now holds 11 percent of the tablet market in China.

So, what's going on? According to Chang, China-based consumers are now worried about price. And on that front, Apple's iPad is notably more expensive than many of the Android-based tablets available in the country. In fact, a slew of vendors have cropped up in China that deliver low-priced tablets. Half of all tablet shipments in China come from companies that own 1 percent or less of the market.

Still, a decline in market share does not necessarily translate to issues for the company. After all, Apple shipped 1.5 million tablets to China in the second quarter, up 28 percent compared with the same period last year. Samsung, meanwhile, shipped 571,000 units. Lenovo came in third place with 413,000 units shipped.