Apple increases tablet market share despite overall sales decline

Worldwide tablet sales fell 12% in the second quarter, but Apple slightly increased its market share for its iPad products, according to the latest report from the International Data Corporation (IDC).

The tech giant lifted its share of the market to 26% from 25% in the year previous. Shipments fell by 9% compared with the corresponding quarter last year, but with the release of the iPad Pro average selling prices increased.

The decline in tablet sales was the seventh successive quarter without a sales rise with 38.7m units shipped worldwide compared to 44.1m units that shipped the same quarter last year.

Google's Android software system dominated the market once again with 65%, followed by Apple's iOS with 26%, and Windows coming in at third place with 9%.

Due to a larger drop in shipments for Samsung, the gap between the South Korean company and the US company increased. This is a new trend for 2016 as in the previous year the gap had been shrinking.

“The market has spoken as consumers and enterprises seek more productive form factors and operating systems – it’s the reason we’re seeing continued growth in detachables,” IDC senior research analyst Jitesh Ubrani said in a statement.

Ubrani added that Google will look to focus more on detachable products in the near future.

“At present, it’s difficult for Android to compete with iOS or Windows detachable products. However, the next 12 to 18 months will be very interesting as Google launches the next version of Android with better multi-tasking support and as they begin to bring together their two operating systems.”