Apple continued to dominate the tablet industry in the second quarter of 2012, with a 68.2 percent market share, according to figures from IDC, with the recently launched new iPad driving sales.

According to the research firm, the vendor shipped 17.04 million units during the period, up 84.3 percent year-on-year, beating its previous quarterly record of 15.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2011.

The company also dwarfs its nearest rival, Samsung, which shipped 2.39 million units – more than double the South Korean giant achieved in the second quarter of 2011.

IDC said that it expects competition in the market to “heat up” in the second half of 2012. Google’s Nexus 7 is set to make an impact, and Bob O’Donnell, program vice-president of Clients and Display for IDC, noted: “In addition to major new products from Amazon and quite likely Apple, we can also expect an influx of Microsoft Windows 8 and Windows RT-based tablets starting in late October.”

The size of the tablet market as a whole in Q2 was 24.99 million units, up 66.2 percent year-on-year.

Tom Mainelli, research director for Mobile Connected Devices at IDC, said: “The vast majority of consumers continue to favour the iPad over competitors, and Apple is seeing increasingly strong interest in the device from vertical markets—especially education. While iPad shipment totals are beginning to slow a bit in mature markets where the device saw early traction, growth in other regions is clearly more than making up the difference.”

Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide Media Tablet Shipments, Second Quarter 2012 (Preliminary) (Unit Shipments are in thousands)

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet Tracker, August 2, 2012.

IDC said that third-placed Amazon rebounded from a “sluggish” first quarter, to post shipments of 1.2 million units (the device was not available in Q2 2011, for comparison purposes).

Fourth placed ASUS shipped 855,000 units, also more than doubling shipments year-on-year. Fifth placed Acer was the only vendor to see its year-on-year shipments decline, falling 38.7 percent to 385,000 units.

The “others” category also saw a shipment decrease, falling 16.4 percent to 3.07 million.