Tablet Shipments Fall 23% as iPad Drops 27.5% in Q3 2026

Global tablet shipments fell 23% year over year to 32.2 million units in Q3 2026, Omdia says. Apple remained first, but iPad shipments dropped 27.5% to about 11.6 million, while Lenovo was the only top five brand to grow. The research firm says a meaningful recovery is unlikely before 2028.

How Far Did Shipments Fall?

Brands shipped 41.8 million tablets in Q3 2025, so the market lost roughly 9.6 million units over twelve months. The decline followed a 10% drop in Q2 2026. Omdia published the figures on November 5 in its quarterly tablet report and said the Middle East, China and Western Europe were hit hardest. These figures count shipments into stores, carriers and distributors, not tablets bought by consumers.

Which Brands Lost and Which Grew?

Apple shipped about 4.4 million fewer iPads than a year earlier, and its share slipped to 36% from 38.2%. Samsung fell 21.7% to 5.43 million, Xiaomi fell 10.6% to 2.35 million, and Huawei fell 43% to 1.85 million. Lenovo rose 11.9% to 4.09 million and lifted its share to 12.7% from 8.7%, while its detachables fell sharply. Omdia credits its slate tablets, the keyboard-free models. Apple's newest model, the OLED iPad mini, only reached stores in November, after the quarter closed. Huawei still grew in Central and Eastern Europe and Asia Pacific.

Why Are Shipments Falling?

Omdia points to supply rather than only demand. Himani Mukka, Omdia research manager, said tablets are increasingly taking a backseat in vendors' strategic priorities for 2026 and 2027 as supply constraints intensify. Samsung kept losing volume despite new launches because component constraints weighed on shipments. Tablets have thinner margins than phones or AI hardware, so they are among the first products to lose out when memory is scarce.

What Does It Mean for Buyers?

Mukka expects supply to tighten further next year and says a meaningful recovery is unlikely before 2028. For buyers, that suggests fewer deep discounts and leaner configurations rather than a flood of cheap tablets. If you need a tablet for work or school, memory is the spec to watch.

Sources: ShiftDelete · Business Wire · Techmeme