The three Chinese tablet brands have enjoyed dramatic growth over the past year as they seek to compete with the market-leading iPad. Even total shipments cannot compete, but their growth rate suggests that within a year or two, could be a threat.
However, the iPads 26 appears to be set to make major changes to the game, making it more difficult than ever for competing brands to catch up…
iPad dominates the tablet market
The iPad started in 2010 and dominated the tablet market despite its premium pricing. Certainly there are indications that iPad Pro models will actually sell out cheap ones.
Samsung has long been the only serious competition, but now it is less than half of Apple’s market share, at 17% versus Apple’s 36%.
However, Chinese brands enjoy rapid growth
However, Canalys’ latest market intelligence report shows that all three Chinese brands enjoy dramatic growth year-over-year.
- Huawei: 29.2%
- Lenovo: 24.7%
- Xiaomi: 42.3%
The above is Xiaomi’s Redmi Pad 2, which has built a career from cloning Apple products.
However, even if we combined, we only shipped just over 9m for a 14m iPad. Furthermore, most of the demand for tablets in China is in the domestic market and is supported by government subsidies.
Mobile games are the growing purchasing driver
Mobile gaming on tablets remains a relatively niche activity, but Canalys says this is one of the factors driving strong growth.
The market has benefited from the wave of new product launches, particularly in the gaming segment. Due to the growing consumer interest in this use case, gaming tablets have emerged as a niche growth category, especially in Asia. Notable releases include Xiaomi’s Redmi K Pad (8.8 inch) and Vivo’s PAD5, with Lenovo’s Legion Tab shipments more than double the quarter.
iPados 26 changes the game
Other brands have acquired positions, but the iPads 26 could significantly boost iPad sales later this year as the device’s capabilities become more capable. As stated in accordance with the WWDC keynote:
The much greater change is the proper window. The iPad started out as a single-task device. One fullscreen app at a time. Slideover and splitview then allowed us to use multiple apps at once, but that was rather clunky and unintuitive. Stage Manager has made usability even better, but for me, the window flexibility alternative I get on a Mac was still not enough. But now the iPad works much the same as the Mac in this respect. You can open multiple apps and place, size and overlay each window as you like.
As for growth later this year, I know where to put my money.
Highlighted accessories
Photo: Xiaomi
