Financial reports from the second quarter of the 2013 calendar year are in and according to the IDC reports, Apple remains the largest tablet maker in the world. However, it snumbers have dipped significantly.
Apple accounted for 32.4 percent of shipments in the second quarter this year, meanwhile, it had 60.3 percent in the same quarter this time last year. The cause for the dip seems to be the lack of any new iPad products in recent months.
"A new iPad launch always piques consumer interest in the tablet category and traditionally that has helped both Apple and its competitors," said Tom Mainelli, research director for tablets at IDC. "With no new iPads, the market slowed for many vendors, and that's likely to continue into the third quarter. However, by the fourth quarter we expect new products from Apple, Amazon, and others to drive impressive growth in the market."
While Apple still has the lead, competing tablet makes like Google and Samsung all posted significant gains this quarter. Samsung, the second-largest tablet maker, posted a 277 percent year over year gain to 8.1 million units, which is roughly 18 percent of the market, according to AppleInsider.
Apple is expected to get some of its lead back when it unveils the iPad 5 and the iPad Mini 2. Those releases are rumored to happen sometime in the fall to go along with the launch of the highly anticipated iOS 7.
AppleInsider notes that shipments and market share are only a small part of the tablet sales story. Actual sales where customers leave a store with a tablet in hand are unknown. However, Apple is still considered the undisputed leader in collecting most of the profits from tablets. Apple Chief Executive, Tim Cook, noted in the company's most recent quarterly earnings report that the latest Web browsing share data shows the iPad accounting for 84 percent of the tablet traffic in the world.
