Apple remains tablet king, but Samsung climbs
Apple comes in at No. 1 in the world's tablet market, but the share of No. 2 device maker Samsung grows quickly.
The tablet market has grown by more than 140 percent over the course of a year, with Apple continuing to reign as the No. 1 provider of tablets, according to a report published Wednesday by IDC.
That means Apple shipped 19.5 million of the 49.2 million tablets shipped worldwide during this past three-month quarter. Samsung, in comparison, shipped 8.8 million tablets, but it's a figure that's grown more than 280 percent since last year. Asus shipped 2.7 million tablets, thanks to the Nexus 7, and Kindle maker Amazon shipped 1.8 million tablets. Microsoft landed among the top five tablet vendors for the first time with its Surface PT and Surface Pro tablets. It shipped a total of 900,000 tablets.
IDC analysts attribute the growth of the tablet market overall to consumers' fondness for smaller screens.
"Sustained demand for the iPad Mini and increasingly strong commercial shipments led to a better-than-expected first quarter for Apple," Tom Mainelli, research director for tablets at IDC, said in a statement. "In addition, by moving the iPad launch to the fourth quarter of 2012, Apple seems to have avoided the typical first-quarter slowdown that traditionally occurred when consumers held off buying in January and February in anticipation of a new product launch in March."