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Tablet Shipments Reached 49.2 Million in 1Q 2013

Driven by increasing demand worldwide, media tablet shipments continue to surge across the globe, growing 142.4 percent year over year in the first quarter of 2013 (1Q13), according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC).

Tablet shipments totaled 49.2 million units in 1Q13 -- surpassing that of the entire first half of 2012. With growth fueled by increased market demand for smaller screen devices, tablets sales have shown no sign of slowing down.

Apple outperformed IDC's most recent projections for the quarter, shipping 19.5 million units compared to a forecast of 18.7 million units. The company, which historically has experienced a steep drop off in first quarter shipments (following strong holiday sales in the fourth quarter), saw some smoothing of that seasonality this year.

Number two vendor Samsung also performed above expectations and managed to grow its shipments over the fourth quarter 2012 as more of the company's smaller-sized tablets began to gain traction in the market.

Samsung has also used its recent Android smartphone growth to help bring its tablet product line into new markets and channels, leveraging the opportunity to package and bundle.

The strong performance of the two market leaders helped drive total shipments to an impressive 49.2 million units for the quarter.


"Sustained demand for the iPad mini and increasingly strong commercial shipments led to a better-than expected first quarter for Apple," said Tom Mainelli, Research Director, Tablets at IDC.

In addition, by moving the iPad launch to the fourth quarter of 2012, Apple seems to have avoided the typical first-quarter slowdown that traditionally occurred when consumers held off buying in January and February in anticipation of a new product launch in March.

ASUS managed to move into the number 3 vendor spot as it continued to see decent tablet shipment demand from the highly marketed Nexus 7 device. But, the company will need to find a way to sustain its momentum. Amazon fell to the number 4 position, once again the victim of a highly seasonal product cycle.

Microsoft, which is a focal point for many in the tablet space, entered the top five for the first time as shipments of its Surface RT and Surface Pro tablets combined for a total of just 900,000 units. Many of those units were Surface Pro, which the company started shipping to the U.S. and Canada in February.

Beyond the Surface products, Microsoft Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets continued to struggle to gain traction in the market. Total combined Windows 8 and Windows RT shipments across all vendors reached 1.8 million units.

Clearly the market is moving toward smart 7-8 inch devices, but Microsoft's larger challenges center around consumer messaging and lower cost competition. Perhaps they can recover from the many setbacks they've had entering the tablet market. We'll have to wait and see.

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