According to Canalys, the tablet market continued its post-pandemic slump during the second quarter of 2023 as the number of tablets shipped worldwide from April through June declined 10.6% year-over-year. You might recall that during the pandemic, parents purchased tablets so that their children could participate in remote classes from home. Those working from home also purchased tablets in place of more expensive computers. At the end of the day, both the students and their parents could use their tablets to play games and watch streaming content.

The decline in deliveries during the second quarter resulted in the shipment of 31 million tablets. This figure was down sequentially from the first quarter and was also the lowest number of tablets shipped in a quarter since the opening three months of 2020. During Q1 of this year, global tablet shipments were down 13%. Those who see the glass as half full might note that the decline in shipments for the second quarter was a slight improvement from the preceding one. 

Apple bucked the trend during the second quarter as iPad deliveries rose from 12.10 million units during the 2022 second quarter to 12.35 million this year. While the year-over-year increase in iPad shipments was only 2% for the quarter, Apple was the only manufacturer in the top five to show an annual gain. The market share of the iPad rose to 39.8% from last year's 34.9% as the category creator remains its leader.

Apple was the only one of the top five tablet manufacturers to grow shipments in Q2

Samsung was a distant second having shipped 6.01 million tablets globally during Q2. This represented a 13.6% decline from the 6.95 million slates it delivered during the same quarter a year ago. The company's market share declined from 20% to 18.8%. Despite a 33.4% decline in year-over-year shipments, Amazon still managed to finish third having shipped 2.21 million tablets in the quarter. The company's market share dropped to 6.9% from 9.5% during Q2 of 2022.

Lenovo was fourth having shipped 2.14 million tablets worldwide from April through June. That gave the company a 6.7% slice of the global tablet pie down from the 10.1% share that the company had during last year's second quarter. On an annual basis, the company's shipments dropped by 39.1%. And that leaves Huawei to close out the top five tablet shippers worldwide. During Q2, the company had the second best showing after Apple with its deliveries down only 2.8% to 1.66 million tablets. Huawei actually saw its market share of the global tablet market rise during the quarter from 4.9% last year to 5.2% this year.

Himani Mukka, Research Manager at Canalys, said, "Although demand for tablets has dropped from the highs of the pandemic, it remains relatively resilient. With the PC and smartphone markets also under threat, vendors selling tablets have an additional tool to help target pockets of opportunity in consumer, commercial and education sectors. The market will receive a boost from seasonally stronger demand in the second half of the year, with vendors continuing to launch new products, adopt aggressive go-to-market strategies and drive promotional activity."

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