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iPad holds 71 percent of China's tablet market, report says

Apple is the top choice among almost three-quarters of Chinese tablet buyers, according to Analysys International.

Lance Whitney Contributing Writer
Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and a former IT professional. He's written for Time, CNET, PCMag, and several other publications. He's the author of two tech books--one on Windows and another on LinkedIn.
Lance Whitney
2 min read
Apple's 4th-generation iPad.
Apple's 4th-generation iPad. Apple

The iPad may be shedding market share globally but it's reportedly staying strong in China.

For the third quarter of this year, Apple grabbed 71.4 percent of the Chinese tablet market. That was down a percentage point from the second quarter, but still far ahead of Lenovo with a 10.5 percent share, Reuters said, citing a report from research firm Analysys International.

In third place among tablet makers was Chinese company Ereneben with a 3.6 percent cut of the market, trailed closely by Samsung with a 3.5 percent share.

Overall, China's tablet market climbed 62.5 percent last quarter over the same quarter in 2011. For the quarter, 2.6 million tablets were sold in China, up from 1.6 million a year ago, according to the report.

The iPad may rule the roost in China, but its global dominance continues to weaken.

The iPad lineup captured just 55 percent of worldwide tablet shipments last quarter, according to a report out yesterday from ABI Research. That proved to be a 14 percent drop in the iPad's share from the second quarter and its lowest level since the original iPad debuted in early 2010.

A recent report from IDC pegged the iPad's global tablet share even lower at 50.4 percent. Samsung took second place with 18.4 percent, followed by Amazon with 9 percent and Asus (which makes Google's Nexus 7 tablet) with 8.6 percent.

Apple has been challenged by an increasing onslaught of rival tablets from the likes of Samsung, Amazon, Asus, and other Android vendors.

The Android OS now accounts for more than 44 percent of all tablets shipped, according to ABI's data. And that number will continue to rise, say analysts.

Android will finally knock the iPad off its pedestal in 2013, projects Sameer Singh, an analyst with mergers and acquisitions consulting group Finvista Advisors. Singh expects the market share held by Android tablets to surpass that of the iPad in the first half of next year.

Of course, Apple will continue to reign as the top tablet manufacturer, way ahead of Samsung, Amazon, and the others. But low-cost devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Amazon Kindle Fire, and Google Nexus 7 are clearly taking some bite out of Apple's once dominant domain.

Watch this: Fourth-gen iPad (October 2012): Turbo-boosted tablet