Tablet sales leap thanks to record iPad sales

Booming iPad sales have helped tablet sales skyrocket, but other firms are starting to see success too, analyst firms have reported.

IDC said tablet shipments were up 66% in the second quarter to 25 million globally, a jump from 15 million in the same quarter last year.

Much of the growth was down to Apple posting its best quarterly sales yet for the iPad, shipping 17 million – well above its previous record of 15.4 million in the last quarter of 2011.

However, other manufacturers are starting to see “solid growth”, IDC said – that’s without including sales of the Nexus 7, made by Google and Asus, which started shipping in the third quarter of the year.

Of the top five firms, four posted positive growth, with only Acer posting a decline, nearly halving its shipments from last year.

iPad versus PCs

Rival analyst firm Canalys reported that tablet shipments were up 75% to 24 million in the second quarter compared to the previous year, giving the devices a 22% share of the computer market – the firm lumps tablets in with desktop and laptop shipments. That measurement contrasts the success Apple continues to have with the iPad against Windows’ and Intel’s shrinking slices of the PC market, which have fallen to new lows – although they’re still at dominant 73% and 70% shares respectively.

By the analyst firm’s count, Apple topped the PC charts in the second quarter with nearly a fifth of the global market, with 21 million sales of iPads and Macs – up 60% from the same quarter last year.

HP and Lenovo were in second and third place with a sixth of the market each, but HP slid 11% from last year while Lenovo jumped 27%.

Of the total 24 million tablets sold, 17 million were iPads, but Canalys pointed out Samsung and Asus were also doing well, and predicted the well-reviewed, low-priced Nexus 7 would boost Asus’ share.

Both analyst firms noted the arrival of Windows 8 and Microsoft’s own-brand tablets in the next quarter, but Canalys doesn’t expect the Surface devices to have much impact.