Market research organization International Data Corporation (IDC) reported that worldwide tablet shipments declined last quarter as total volumes fell 9.7 percent from the first quarter of 2013. Although this may seem like bad news, the 45.1 million units shipped in the second quarter represented an increase of 59.6 percent from the same quarter in 2012.
But while overall growth is down sequentially, two vendors jumped back into the top five in Q2: Lenovo and Acer. Lenovo’s shipments surpassed the million unit mark for the first time in a quarter, shipping a total of 1.5 million devices, up 313.9 percent from a year ago, capturing 3.3 percent of the market. Acer, on the other hand, shipped 1.4 million tablets in the second quarter of 2013, an increase of 247.9 percent from the same period a year ago.
IDC Mobility Tracker Program Manager Ryan Reith said in his prepared remarks that the tablet market is still evolving, which results in vendors’ unit shipments rising and falling fairly quickly, particulary among non-Apple vendors such as Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG) Android.
“Apple aside, the remaining vendors are still very much figuring out which platform strategy will be successful over the long run. 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.”
Apple’s iPad saw a lower-than-predicted shipment total of 14.6 million units for the quarter, down from 19.5 million in the first quarter of 2013, which the IDC attributed to the Apple’s failure to launch a new product in March to spur shipments. Apple is expected to launch more tablet products in the latter part of the year to compete with other vendors during the holiday season.
“A new iPad launch always piques consumer interest in the tablet category and traditionally that has helped both Apple and its competitors,” said IDC Tablets Research Director Tom Mainelli in a prepared statement. “With no new iPads, the market slowed for many vendors, and that’s likely to continue into the third quarter.”
Other top vendors also saw a decline in unit shipments during the second quarter of 2013. Samsung, ranked second, shipped 8.1 million units, down from 8.6 million in the first quarter of 2013, while ASUS shipped a total of 2.0 million units, down from 2.6 million in the first quarter.
