A new market intelligence reports indicates that Western European tablet shipments declined sharply in Q3 2021, with four out of five of the top brands seeing their year-on-year numbers fall by anywhere from 20% to 53%.

Apple was the only tablet vendor to see its sales increase during the quarter, enjoying a 33% growth in iPad shipments, year-on-year …

Canalys provides the estimates.

Tablet shipments in Western Europe shrank 20%, with 6.9 million units shipped. “In Q3 2020, tablets had an extraordinary performance as they filled a gap created by PCs shortages. They are now seeing a corrective decline as penetration within the primary userbase saturates,” said analyst Trang Pham.

Despite the contracting market, Apple appeared to be unaffected. In recent quarters, Apple has increasingly widened its leadership in the market with other tablet vendors. In Q3 2021, Apple saw a 33% year-on-year growth while the other top five vendors recorded double-digit declines.

The firm says that Samsung suffered the biggest decline, its tablet shipments falling by a massive 53%.

Canalys said that Apple benefited from two factors: new launches and good supply-chain management, which better enabled it to keep up with demand.

“The iPad’s consistent performance today is thanks to Apple’s dedicated focus on the tablet market. Apple continues to launch newer iPads throughout the year catering to more customer segments. Despite the crunch, Apple’s vertically integrated supply chain has insulated it well from bearing the brunt of the corrective decline,” said Pham.

In the Western European PC market, all the leading vendors boosted their shipments in the quarter. Apple took fourth place, behind HP, Lenovo, and Dell. Mac shipments increased 27% year-on-year, seeing Apple increase its market share from 11% to 12%.

Western Europe’s PC market has been trending upwards for six consecutive quarters. “The numbers prove a continuous demand for PC devices,” said Trang Pham, Canalys Research Analyst. “This isn’t just about fulfilling backlog orders anymore, but about managing a longer-term demand and this is good news for every single vendor operating in the market.”

Photo: Alexandar Todov/Unsplash