Apple, Huawei, Amazon gain in sluggish tablet market

Apple, Huawei and Amazon boosted tablet sales over the past quarter, despite the ongoing slump in the overall market for the devices, surveys showed Thursday.

Overall tablet sales dropped 3.4 percent from the same period last year to 37.9 million, according to a survey by research firm IDC.

Apple's nearly 15 percent boost in iPad sales from a year ago gave it a 30 percent share of the global market, IDC said.

IDC said Apple's gains came from consolidating its lineup and introducing new tablets, including a 10.5 inch iPad Pro, which encouraged some consumers to upgrade.

Samsung remained the number two vendor with a 15.8 percent market shares as sales dipped one percent, the report said.

China-based Huawei meanwhile bucked the overall trend with a strong 47 percent gain in sales, vaulting to the number three position with an eight percent market share, the research firm reported.

IDC estimated that Amazon—whose sales figures are not reported—boosted its Fire tablet sales by 51 percent from last year to capture the fourth spot at 6.4 percent.

China's Lenovo was fifth with a 5.7 percent market shares as sales dropped 14.6 percent from last year, the report said.

A separate survey by Strategy Analytics estimated a seven percent decline in global tablet sales to 43.8 million units in the April-June period.

© 2017 AFP