Tablet sales are finally starting to look normal again

Ten years ago, a tablet was the thing to have. Apple got everyone excited about this form factor in early 2010 with the announcement of the first iPad, and it wasn’t long before we had Samsung launching its own Galaxy Tab. Options from dozens of brands flooded the market over the next few years, peaking around 2014. Over the years that followed, interest (and sales) began to wane — only for the pandemic to turn the tide in 2020. But those few years of accelerated sales wouldn’t last, and recently tablet sales have found themselves in a slump. Luckily for our big-screen-loving friends, that trend already seems to be reversing.

Tablet sales are up year-to-year basically across the board, according to the latest statistics prepared by the International Data Corporation (IDC). Apple and Samsung, the two biggest tablet players, have enjoyed sales up over 18% in Q2, compared to the same timeframe in 2023. Lenovo’s holding steady as the third biggest manufacturer of tablets, but its share is down slightly, despite shipments up 16.7% — a testament to the growing size of the market overall.

The biggest gains are happening further down the pack. Fourth-place Huawei boosted shipments by 40.3%, and while Xiaomi maintains its fifth-place spot, it nearly doubled its tablet output over the course of the year.

Ultimately, IDC reports that, overall, shipments are more or less back to where they were before the pandemic. This quarter saw shipments of about 34.4 million devices, versus 32.5 million five years prior — and last year, that number was all the way down at 28.3 million. Of course, maybe the bigger question is what happens next? Will the slump of the late 2010s return? Or is it possible that some of this momentum manages to hold, and even if tablet manufacturers don’t see the return of those pandemic gains, the market might settle into a period of sustained, gradual growth?