14 DAY TRIAL // The global health issue has forced people to begin working remotely, and as a result, sales of tablets, PCs, and 2-in-1s skyrocketed in the last 12 months or so.
Chromebooks obviously benefited from a major growth as well, with IDC data revealing that shipments of this particular device category reached 13 million units in the first quarter of this year, up from just 2.8 million units in the first quarter of 2020.
When it comes to tablet sales, Apple continues to be the leading company with 12.7 million sold units in the first quarter, enough to secure a market share of 31.7 percent. This is an increase of no less than 64.3 percent from the first quarter of 2020, IDC says.
Apple, the top tablet company
Samsung was number two with 60.8 percent growth, as the South Koreans managed to sell a total of 8.0 million devices and therefore obtain a 20 percent market share.
"There's no doubt that Chromebooks have supplanted tablets in many education markets. However, price and the dependence on cloud services have prevented them from becoming mainstays in all regions," said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager with IDC's Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers. "Besides, Chromebooks have yet to break into the consumer market in a meaningful way as competing notebooks as well as tablets, such as the iPad, Galaxy devices, and Fire tablets, maintain a strong presence."
The biggest increase in market share in the first quarter of the year was recorded by Amazon, whose sales jumped no less than 143 percent. In other words, Amazon managed to sell a total of 3.5 million devices during the quarter, up from 1.4 million units in Q1 2020. Right now, Amazon is fourth in the charts with a market share of 8.7 percent, close to third-placed Lenovo with 9.4 percent.