Samsung displaced Apple to become the leading vendor of tablet PCs in Western Europe during Q3, though Amazon registered the greatest year-on-year growth, figures from IDC showed.

The South Korea-based vendor headed the top five in terms of shipments during the quarter due to the wide range of tablets it offers, IDC stated.

The research company highlighted the Galaxy Tab A as the most popular device in Samsung’s range, noting the unit contributed heavily to a 7.6 per cent year-on-year rise in shipments to 1.8 million units, giving the vendor a 23.3 per cent share of the total Western European tablet market during the recent quarter.

Apple’s shipments slipped slightly (2 per cent) year-on-year to 1.7 million units, though the company remained well clear of third-placed Lenovo, which shipped 730,000 tablets during the quarter (up 17.8 per cent on Q3 2016).

IDC stated around 60 per cent of Apple’s recent shipments comprised upgrades to its latest iPad, which launched in Q2. Apple achieved a 22.6 per cent market share in Q3 2017: Lenovo 9.4 per cent.

The research company noted Amazon put in a strong performance due to its range of low-cost slate devices during the quarter: shipments increased 69 per cent compared with Q3 2016 to 680,000 units for an 8.8 per cent share. Huawei rounded out the top five, registering the second-highest year-on-year increase in shipments (40.7 per cent) with 340,000 units shifted giving it a 4.4 per cent share.

Hitting the little guys
Laura Llames, IDC research analyst for Western European Personal Computing Devices, noted the market is consolidating around the top five vendors, which accounted for almost 70 per cent of total shipments of 7.8 million devices in the quarter compared with less than 60 per cent in Q3 2016 (when total shipments stood at 8.2 million).

“The aggressive competition in the market is having a negative impact on local companies, as most of the major OEMs are offering a product mix that includes not only premium devices but also more affordable devices,” she stated.