Apple maintains lead over Samsung as top tablet vendor in Q2 as both lose share to others

With Apple’s Q3 earnings call this week revealing iPad sales of 13.3 million units for the quarter and Tim Cook making a point of defending the category, today we get a look at how Apple is losing share to smaller Android tablets with IDC’s latest numbers for worldwide tablet shipments.

While noting that tablet shipments worldwide grew 11% year-over-year, IDC’s numbers show that Apple was able to maintain its lead over Samsung with 26.9% of the market (down from 33% last year) compared to Samsung at 17.2% down from 18.8% the year before. Both lose share, however, to other companies as the category reportedly experienced a lot of growth among smaller companies like Lenovo and Acer while the “others” category grew from 37% to 44% marketshare:

Despite declining shipments of its iPad product line, Apple managed to maintain its lead in the worldwide tablet market, shipping 13.3 million units in the second quarter. Following a strong first quarter, Samsung struggled to maintain its momentum and saw its market share slip to 17.2% in the second quarter. Lenovo continued to climb the rankings ladder, surpassing ASUS and moving into the third spot in the tablet market, shipping 2.4 million units and grabbing 4.9% markets share. The top 5 was rounded out by ASUS and Acer, with 4.6% and 2.0% share, respectively. Share outside the top 5 grew to an all time high as more and more vendors have made inroads in the tablet space. By now most traditional PC and phone vendors have at least one tablet model in the market, and strategies to move bundled devices and promotional offerings have slowly gained momentum.

During its earnings call earlier this week, Tim Cook addressed comments regarding weaker than usual growth of iPad sales pointing out that the company is experiencing increasing growth internationally while the US market slows. He also noted possibilities for growth in the enterprise that could come of Apple’s new partnership with IBM. “When we dig into it though our market share in the commercial sector in the US is good, it’s 76%, the penetration in business is low, it’s only 20. If you looked at the penetration of notebooks in business it would be over 60. We think there is a substantial upside in business…The market is bifurcated on iPad. In the BRIC countries, iPad did extremely well. The growth was very high. China it was in the 50’s, the middle east it was in the 60’s. In the developed countries like the US, the market is clearly weaker there…”

IDC notes that “total tablet market includes slate tablets plus 2-in-1 tablets,” but it didn’t say exactly what tablets from what companies it’s including in the others category. As always the report includes numbers for tablet shipments, while Apple’s figure of 13.3 million represents tablets sold.