After the downturn during the pandemic, the tablet market is regaining its pace of recovery. While traditional tablet giant Apple still holds the lead, its market share is gradually being eaten away by up-and-comers. Tablet shipments from brands such as Xiaomi and Huawei are growing rapidly, creating unprecedented challenges for Apple. This industry reshuffle will determine the future map of the tablet market.
Xiaomi's Huawei tablet shipments have increased significantly, and its product strength has been recognized
According to the latest data from IDC, in the quarter of 2024, Xiaomi and Huawei's tablet shipments increased by 92.6% and 68.4% year-on-year, respectively, far exceeding the industry average. This is mainly due to the optimization of hardware configuration and system experience by the two vendors, as well as reasonable pricing strategies.
The Xiaomi tablet uses an industry-leading Qualcomm Snapdragon processor in hardware, paired with a large-capacity battery and a high-resolution display, ensuring excellent performance and user experience. Based on Android's deeply customized MIUI system, it brings users a smooth and user-friendly operation interface. In terms of pricing, Xiaomi tablets adhere to the concept of "high cost performance", allowing consumers to enjoy a flagship-level experience at a lower price.
Huawei's tablet PCs rely on its technology accumulation in the field of mobile phone chips and use self-developed Kirin processors, which have outstanding performance in both single-core and multi-core performance. With Huawei's own HarmonyOS operating system, it not only realizes seamless connection across devices, but also deeply optimizes various scenarios such as office, education, and entertainment. Huawei's tablet's long-range capability and large-size display are also important reasons for its popularity.
Apple's tablets hit a growth bottleneck
Although Apple's iPad series of tablets still dominates global shipments in the 2024 quarter, its market share has slipped to 34.6% from 38.2% in the same period last year. This is mainly due to the fact that Apple's product line is too high-end and priced higher, limiting its popularity in the low-to-mid-end market.
Apple's pace of innovation in the tablet space seems to be slowing. The hardware specifications and exterior design of the iPad series have not changed much over the years, giving it a feeling of fatigue and tedium. Although the experience of iPadOS has always been well received, it is highly similar to iOS, which also makes people feel that it lacks freshness.
Apple is not without effort. In March this year, Apple launched the new iPad Air, which uses the M1 chip and 5G network support, which has greatly improved performance and network experience. But with pricing starting at $599, it's still hard to appeal to the average consumer.
The main driver of the recovery of the tablet market
The main driving force for the recovery of the tablet market is the arrival of the replacement cycle. According to Canalys, the median lifespan of tablets worldwide in 2023 has reached 3.8 years, which means that a large number of older devices are in urgent need of a replacement.
The pent-up commercial demand during the pandemic is being released. Whether it is remote work, online education, medical care, retail and other fields, tablets have shown great application potential as a lightweight and efficient mobile office tool.
The popularization of 5G communication technology has also brought new development opportunities for tablet computers. The high-speed, low-latency 5G network can greatly improve the Internet experience of tablets and meet the growing demand for video conferencing and cloud gaming.
The new form of tablet has become a new growth point
In addition to traditional tablet computers, new forms of products such as foldable tablets are also attracting attention and are expected to become a new growth point in the tablet market.
The foldable tablet combines the advantages of a tablet and a notebook, and can be used as a large tablet or a portable notebook by folding. Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi and other manufacturers have launched their own foldable tablet products, which have attracted the favor of many enthusiasts.
Tablet PCs are also striving to expand multi-scenario applications to meet different needs such as education, office, and entertainment. For example, Huawei tablet PCs have launched product lines with different positioning such as student tablets and office tablets. The Mi Pad has launched an enhanced version specifically for gamers.
Challenges for tablets
Despite the bright future, tablets still face some challenges. Competition with traditional PCs and smartphones has intensified. Due to the overlap of features and positioning, it can be difficult for tablets to find their own unique place between these two camps.
Tablets are generally priced higher, which limits their popularity to some extent. In the case of the Apple iPad, for example, the starting price is $599, which is still a significant expense for most ordinary consumers.
The lack of innovation is also a major problem in the tablet industry. Whether it is hardware or software, the pace of innovation of tablet PCs is relatively lagging behind, giving people a feeling of fatigue and tedium, and it is difficult to stimulate consumers' desire to change phones.
After the impact of the epidemic, the tablet market is regaining its vitality. Rising stars such as Xiaomi and Huawei are eating into Apple's market share with their excellent product power and pricing strategies. This industry reshuffle will intensify, and whoever can seize new opportunities such as 5G and foldable will be able to break through in this red sea. As consumers, we are waiting to see what more innovations and surprises the tablet market brings.