Earlier this week during Apple’s earnings call, CEO Tim Cook said that the iPad had experienced its most successful June quarter in nearly a decade. And now IDC is out with its latest worldwide shipment figures that underline Apple’s commanding lead over the tablet competition. After refreshing the iPad Air in 2020 and launching an upgraded iPad Pro earlier this year, Apple is next expected to update the iPad Mini.
IDC estimates that Apple shipped 12.9 million iPads in the second quarter. Its nearest competition is Samsung, which hit 8 million shipments. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S7 tablets offer fantastic hardware and punchy OLED screens, but they remain hamstrung by Android’s less-than-stellar selection of tablet apps. Lenovo, which continues to release well-received Chromebooks and Chrome OS tablets, took third with 4.7M units shipped, and Amazon came in fourth with 4.3 million Fire tablet shipments.
Both PC and tablet shipments have surged over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic as people have adapted to working from home and remote education. IDC’s figures reveal that Chromebook shipments have grown 68.6 percent year over year and reached 12.3 million units shipped in the second quarter. “While this wasn’t a record quarter for Chromebooks, it wasn’t far off the prior two quarters, which shattered previous highs,” IDC wrote.
But IDC does point to a possible slowdown in sales for Chromebooks and tablets due to ongoing chip shortages and an easing of consumer demand as more people return to the workplace or classroom. Apple has said that supply constraints could be detrimental to iPad sales in the coming months, and the iPhone might be affected as well.
