In a recent report released by ABI Research, the analyst firm said it anticipates the fourth quarter to ship 40 million tablets worldwide, equating to roughly 29 percent of the year?s total volume.
?Though unit shipments were down by 2.7 percent quarter-over-quarter and 19.7 percent year-over-year for the same calendar quarter, new tablets continue to be introduced for the holiday season,? said Jeff Orr, research director at ABI Research.
?Vendors are hoping to gain back some of their unit and revenue shortfall from earlier in 2015. New tablets from Amazon and others will utilize a low-cost approach to achieve this strategy.?
According to the report, Q3 2015 market share for branded tablet vendors ranks Apple at number one, followed by Samsung, Lenovo, Huawei and Asus, consecutively. Notably, the biggest QoQ vendor share gains were Lenovo and Asus.
?Lenovo?s quarter gains mark the first time the vendor holds 10 percent plus share in branded tablets,? continued Orr. ?Asus is still underperforming against its own estimates but is in the midst of a sales push on the current tablet portfolio.?
On the flip side of the spectrum, biggest QoQ vendor share losses pinpoint Apple and Microsoft. While Apple lost nearly eight percent share during the first nine months of 2015, the company expects to regain share and shipment volume during Q4 due to end-of-year holiday purchases.
Microsoft lost more than half of its market share in the previous 90 days, with this mostly attributed to the shift from the Surface Pro 3 to introduction of the Surface Pro 4.
