Apple Holds Tablet Lead Despite 8% iPad Shipment Decline in Q2 2026

Global tablet shipments fell 10 percent year over year in the second quarter of 2026 as component supply constraints and rising prices weighed on demand, according to new research from Omdia. Apple remained the clear leader, shipping 13.459 million iPads worldwide and capturing a 37.8 percent market share despite a 7.5 percent year-over-year decline.



Samsung remained in second place with 5.795 million units and a 16.3 percent share, down 13.0 percent year over year. Lenovo was the only top-five vendor to post growth, with shipments rising 27.1 percent to 3.936 million units. Xiaomi followed with 2.843 million units, down 6.8 percent, while Huawei shipped 2.728 million tablets, a 15.6 percent decline.


"The past quarter saw one of the steepest declines in the tablet market over the past two years," said Himani Mukka, Research Manager at Omdia. She said tablets have become an integral part of many households, with detachable models increasingly replacing traditional PCs for everyday computing in some use cases. Demand also continues to be supported by larger-screen tablets and the category's established role in education and commercial deployments despite the broader market slowdown.

The report also highlighted how ongoing component supply constraints are reshaping tablet strategies. "Looking ahead, vendors are unlikely to broadly prioritize the tablet category in the current component supply-constrained environment," Mukka said. "Instead, they will focus their limited resources on flagship and premium models, further shifting their portfolios toward premium devices." Omdia expects constrained availability of lower-priced tablets and rising retail prices to continue weighing on demand through the rest of 2026. The findings come as the broader electronics industry continues to grapple with supply constraints, including the ongoing memory shortages affecting other device categories.

Apple's shipment decline follows the company's June quarter earnings report, which showed a 5 percent year-over-year drop in iPad revenue. Omdia added that the standard iPad accounted for the majority of shipments, while the Air and iPad mini represented a smaller share of the total.

Vendors outside the top five collectively saw shipments fall 23.5 percent year over year as smaller manufacturers struggled to secure components and maintain competitive pricing. The second quarter also defied the typical seasonal pattern of stronger back-to-school demand, demonstrating how supply constraints have overridden normal seasonal trends.