Apple's iPad Remains On Top As Tablet Shipments Drop For The Very First Time

For
the first time since tracking began, tablet shipments dropped worldwide
during the last quarter. Despite this, Apple remained the top tablet
producer, according to NPD DisplaySearch.


Tablet shipments dropped to 56.3 million units during the first
quarter of 2014, down 5 percent year over year. When laptops and
ultrabooks are included, Apple accounted for 20 percent of the market,
compared to 11 percent for Samsung.


Apple sold 16.3 million iPads in the first three months of the year,
compared to 19.4 million one year ago. Shipments of Samsung tablets
increased around 200,000 units to 9.9 million over the same period.


In total, tablets represented more than half of all mobile PC shipments.

Last month,
Apple reported revenue of $45.6 billion during the second fiscal
quarter of 2014. During the time frame that ended on March 29, the
company sold 43.7 million iPhones. That’s compared to 37.4 million
handsets during the same time frame last year, or around a 16 percent
increase. On the other side, iPad sales took a big dip with 16.35
million sold. That was down more than 15 percent from the year ago
quarter.


Apple is likely to unveil a second-generation iPad Air later this year, as well as a new iPad mini with Retina display.