Apple Remains World’s Top Tablet Maker While Its Market Share Almost Halves In Q2 As Android Gains

Worldwide shipments of tablet computers saw a significant rise in the second quarter of 2013 compared to the same period in the previous year, even as the market share of Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad declined by nearly 30 percentage, according to data from the International Data Corporation, or IDC.

The second quarter of 2013 saw 45.1 million units shipped globally -- up 59.6 percent from the same period in 2012, when tablet vendors shipped 28.3 million devices, the IDC report said.

However, Apple, which saw 17 million iPads shipped in the second quarter of 2012, shipped 2.4 million fewer iPads this year -- a 14.1 percent drop. And, the company’s market share dropped 27.9 percentage points, year-on-year, to 32.4 percent from 60.3 percent, a year earlier.

Given that Apple’s iPad exerts a considerable influence on the worldwide tablet market, the fall in its global shipments in 2013 clearly reflects the emergence of Android-run devices as a force to be reckoned with. But, the iPad still managed to be the world’s top-selling tablet in the second quarter of 2013.

According to IDC, Apple’s lower-than-predicted shipments of the iPad can be mainly attributed to the lack of a new product launch in the first quarter ended March, which had become a tradition at the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant in recent years.

“A new iPad launch always piques consumer interest in the tablet category and traditionally that has helped both Apple and its competitors,” Tom Mainelli, research director, tablets at IDC, said in a statement on Monday.

“With no new iPads, the market slowed for many vendors, and that's likely to continue into the third quarter. However, by the fourth quarter we expect new products from Apple, Amazon, and others to drive impressive growth in the market,” Mainelli said.

Apple is expected to release its fifth generation iPad, dubbed the “iPad 5,” in the second half of this year, which will likely better position the company to compete with its rivals during the holiday season, IDC said.

However, Samsung’s (KRX:005935) second-quarter shipments of its Android-powered tablets were significantly up from the 2.1 million units it shipped during the same period in 2012, helping the company achieve year-on-year growth of 277 percent. Samsung, which shipped more than 8 million units in the second quarter of 2013, accounted for a market share of 18 percent, up from 7.6 percent in the same period in 2012.

Asus (TPE:2357), Lenovo (HKG:0992) and Acer (TPE:2353) rounded out the top five with market shares of 4.5 percent, 3.3 percent and 3.1 percent respectively.

Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android operating system was at the top, powering 28.2 million tablets in the June quarter, accounting for 62.6 percent of all tablets shipped in this period. Android saw a year-on-year growth in market share of 62.6 percent in the second quarter while Apple’s iOS -- which only runs on the company's iPads -- garnered a market share of 32.5 percent.

Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows saw the largest year-on-year growth during the second quarter, with a 527 percent surge in shipments. The platform’s market share rose to 4 percent in the quarter from 1 percent during the same period last year.

"Apple aside, the remaining vendors are still very much figuring out which platform strategy will be successful over the long run,” Ryan Reith, program manager for IDC's Mobility Tracker programs, said in the statement. “To date, Android has been far more successful than the Windows 8 platform. However, Microsoft-fueled products are starting to make notable progress into the market.”