According to the latest report from IDC about the worldwide tablet PC market, Apple's iPad saw a 12.8% YoY decline in its market share, when the worldwide tablet market grew 11.5% YoY (Year-on-Year) in the third quarter of 2014 (Q3 2014). The total tablet shipments reached 53.8 million units in this quarter, as compared to 48.3 million units in Q3 2013.
Besides Apple, Asus also saw a YoY decline in growth by shipping 3.5 million units, down from 3.6 million units it shipped in same quarter last year. Apple's tablet market share declined, but it has maintained the lead by shipping 12.3 million units in Q3 2014. As predicted, Samsung held the number two position by shipping 9.9 million units in Q3 2014, seeing a YoY growth of 5.6 percent.
Jitesh Ubrani, Senior Research Analyst, Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker, said that, "Although the low-cost vendors are moving a lot of volume, the top vendors, like Apple, continue to rake in the dollars. A sub-$100 tablet simply isn't sustainable - Apple knows this - and it's likely the reason they aren't concerned with market share erosion"
While we agree that a sub-$100 tablet isn't going to make the cut, there are numerous tablets out there between the range of Rs 10,000 - Rs 20,000 that do the job well and it wouldn't be long before consumers realise it. From the table above, you can see that Lenovo and RCA tablets have seen the strongest growth YoY, both of which provide a tablet in affordable range. While Lenovo grew 30.6% YoY, RCA is gaining traction as well with 194% YoY growth and 2.6 million unit shipments.
