Apple retains tablet market lead as iPad shipments fall 27.5%
Omdia reported a 23% contraction in global tablet shipments in Q3 2026, with Lenovo the only top-five vendor to record growth.
Apple remained the largest tablet supplier in Q3 2026 despite shipping 27.5% fewer iPads than a year earlier, according to research firm Omdia. Its shipments totaled 11,5 million units, giving it a 36% share of the market.
Worldwide tablet shipments fell to 32.2 million units from 41.8 million, a decline of 23%. Omdia said that represented the weakest volume in nearly three years. Apple’s market share slipped by 2.2 percentage points compared with Q3 2025.
Samsung ranked second with a 16.9% share, ahead of Lenovo at 12.7%, Xiaomi at 7.3% and Huawei at 5.7%. Lenovo alone among the five largest suppliers increased shipments, recording growth of 11.9%. Huawei’s shipments dropped 43%, while Samsung’s fell 21.7% and Xiaomi’s declined 10.6%.
Omdia Research Manager Himani Mukka attributed limited specification improvements to supply constraints, saying those restrictions left new models less differentiated from earlier versions. She said consumers were increasingly expected to postpone purchases until more substantial upgrades became available.
