Delayed purchases from Q3 paid off for consumers looking for holiday deals and the tablet market declined at a slower pace than the last five quarters at -8% to 44.2 million units in Q4 2022. This closed off the year at 162.1 million units shipped for a -12% year-on-year decline as the world dealt with war, economic volatility, and a natural ebb in demand from pandemic highs. Apple and Samsung stood out among the top vendors for posting growth during the holiday season, taking a combined 58% share of the global tablet market while competitive landscape changes to meet post-pandemic demand patterns.

Apple had a favorable comparison from last year when supply chain troubles severely limited their shipments. Apple also had some big product launches in the newest iPad Pros with the M2 chip and the 10th generation iPad, pushing global ASPs to $520. Samsung had another good quarter, focusing its attention on the flagship Galaxy Tab S8 series as the premium segment is showing less exposure to the downside of inflation as users look for computing devices to get work done remotely. Samsung is actively pushing an ecosystem strategy for phones, tablets, PCs, and wearables through marketing and features that work across these devices to promote cross-ownership among its large user base.

Android shipments declined to -18% in Q4 2022 and market share fell to 48%, ending the full year below majority market share for the first time since 2011. Lenovo and Huawei struggled during the quarter, as did unbranded White Box vendors, but small Chinese vendors like Xiaomi, Honor, realme, and OPPO picked up a good portion of this lost share in the Android segment. Wealthier consumers continue to buy premium tier devices from Samsung, while Amazon worked on clearing out inventory and ended lower for the quarter.

Apple and Samsung Account for 3 of 5 Global Tablet Shipments* All figures are rounded (Source: TechInsights, Inc.)

• Apple shipments exceeded expectations and grew 15% year-on-year to 18.1 million units, helped by a favorable comparison to their supply constrained results last year

• Samsung shipments were slightly better than expected at 7.7 million units, growing 5% year-on-year and topping the Android market

• Amazon Fire Tablet shipments fell -16% to 4.9 million units, outperforming most competitors in the low tier

• Lenovo shipments fell -49% as it faced pressure from smaller vendors in China and larger vendors in Europe to reach 2.3 million units

• The pace of Huawei's declines improved to -21% year-on-year to hit 1.4 million units, though new US sanctions may complicate further improvements