Meanwhile sales of consumer tablets in Western Europe showed a slight drop with the commercial segment, however, showing growth of 3.4 percent.
Slate tablets grew by four percent during the quarter.. Slate tablets grew by four percent during the quarter.
Laura Llames, an IDC research analyst said: “Despite a negative quarter for tablets, the market is consolidating and the top five companies account for almost 70 percent of the total market units, compared with less than 60 percent in the same quarter a year ago.”
She added that aggressive competition is affecting local companies as major OEMs lower their prices.
One of the problems in the tablet market is that the machines have a long life and so there's not much reason for people to upgrade.
The top five manufacturers in the third quarter were Samsung, Apple, Lenovo, Amazon and Huawei. While Samsung and Apple are slogging it out in terms of market share, Lenovo, Amazon and Huawei showed considerable growth compared to the third quarter of 2016. Here are IDC's figures in 000s units:
| Company | 2016 Q3 shipments | 2016 Q3 share | 2017 Q3 shipments | 2017 Q3 share | YoY growth |
| Samsung | 1,676 | 20.5% | 1,803 | 23.2% | 7.6% |
| Apple | 1,792 | 21.9% | 1,755 | 22.6% | -2.0% |
| Lenovo | 620 | 7.6% | 730 | 9.4% | 17.8% |
| Amazon | 403 | 4.9% | 680 | 8.8% | 69.0% |
| Huawei | 242 | 3.0% | 340 | 4.4% | 40.7% |
| Others | 3,440 | 42.1% | 2,456 | 31.6% | -28.6% |
| Total | 8,172 | 100% | 7,765 | 100% | -5.0% |
[Image created by Ji-Elle - from Wikipedia]
