Apple tablet share slumps as Samsung gains

Asus, Lenovo and RCA take other top spots in IDC data charts

Apple tablet shipments fell 13 percent in the third quarter of 2014 compared with the same period last year as interest in the iPad range continued to wane.

Apple's share of the market also fell, hitting 22.8 percent, representing a decline on the previous quarter's 26.9 percent. Overall shipments fell from 14.1 million in Q3 2013 to 12.3 million in Q3 this year.

The decline is not surprising as Apple's own financial statements revealed a decline in iPad sales. The company recently launched the new iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 in an effort to revive interest in the product category.

By contrast, rival Samsung saw growth in the tablet space with a 5.6 percent rise in shipments to 9.9 million. However, Samsung's overall share of the market declined slightly to 18.3 percent, down one percent from the same period last year.

Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst for the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker, said that Apple won't be overly concerned about its falling market share given the good profit margins on iPad sales.

"Although the low-cost vendors are moving a lot of volume, the top vendors, like Apple, continue to rake in the dollars," he said.

"A sub-$100 tablet simply isn't sustainable. Apple knows this and it's likely to be the reason that it is not concerned with market share erosion."

Asus took third place with a market share of 6.5 percent, down 0.9 percent compared with the same period last year. Lenovo was fourth with a market share of 5.7 percent as shipments rose to three million in the quarter.

In fifth place is the relatively unknown company RCA, which saw a huge 194 percent increase in market share to 4.9 percent.

IDC said that RCA had signed good distribution deals with major retailers and had been helped by back-to-school sales.

Overall worldwide tablet shipments rose 11.5 percent year over year to 53.8 million units, up from 48.3 million in the same period last year.

The figure of 53.8 million is small fry when set against stats from IDC tracking smartphone shipments, which revealed that a staggering 328 million devices were shipped in the most recent quarter.