's Share of Tablet Market Sinks on Lack of Product Launches in rly 2013

Resrch firm IDC todayannouncedits preliminary estimates of worldwide tablet shipments for the second quarter of 2013, finding that 's share of the market has fallen to under a third. According to IDC's s, held a 32.4% share of the market for quarter, compared to 39.6% in theprevious quarterand a 60.3% share in the yr-ago quarter.

While other top tablet manufacturers saw their shipments rise by 100-300% over the second quarter of 2012, the lack of a new iPad launch from in the March-April timeframe resulted in a 14% drop in 's s. Still, other top vendors saw their shipments drop sequentially, with IDC attributing those drops to a lack of a eral boost in tablet interest that accompanies iPad launches.


Worldwide Tablet Shipments in 2Q13 in Millions of Units (Source: IDC)In yrs past, has launched a new tablet hding into the second quarter, which resulted in strong quarter-over-quarter growth. Now, is expected to launch new tablet products in the second half of the yr, a move that better positions it to compete during the holiday sson. Mnwhile, the other two vendors in the top 3 also saw a decline in their unit shipments during the quarter. Second-place shipped 8.1 million units, down from 8.6 million in the first quarter of 2013, although up significantly from the 2.1 million units shipped in 2Q12. And third-place shipped a total of 2.0 million units in 2Q13, down from 2.6 million in 1Q13.

"A new iPad launch always piques consumer interest in the tablet egory and traditionally that has helped both and its competitors," said Tom Mainelli, Resrch Director, Tablets at IDC. "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 , Amazon, and others to drive impressive growth in the market."Second-place continues to close on in the tablet market, garnering 18% of the market as all of the other major tablet makers continue struggling to hit the 5% mark.


As always, it is important to note that IDC's s track shipments instd of sales, and thus how many shipped devices are making their way into consumers' hands remains unclr. IDC's figures are also estimates, as most companies do not relse their exact tablet shipment data and thus resrch firms must rely on supply chain data and calculations from information that is made public by manufacturers to build their estimates.