Stefan Mileschin

Tablet sales are starting to flatten and are not making the latest estimated quarterly shipments, according to beancounters at IDC.

The analysts say that there is still some growth, but nothing like the previous steep rise.

Apple suffered the most dropping from 40 percent to under 33 percent of the total market share. Second was Samsung, which went from 18 percent to 22 percent. Lenovo also jumped, but was still fourth behind Asus that saw a drop of almost three percent.

The figures show that Apple is continuing to lose ground to Android as the market itself starts to slow down. The iPad's loss was more or less equivalent to the gain for Android tablets. IDC briefly mentioned Windows tablets to say its share remains small but is gaining traction.

On the Android side, Samsung once again secured silver with shipments of about 11.2 million units, growing by more than five percentage points. Asus shipped 2.5 million units during the quarter, Lenovo shipped 2.1 million units, and Amazon rounded out the top five with one million units.

IDC Research Director Tom Mainelli said in a statement that the rise of large-screen phones and consumers who are holding on to their existing tablets for ever longer periods of time were both contributing factors to a weaker-than-anticipated quarter for tablets and 2-in-1s.

http://news.techeye.net/mobile/tablet-sales-flatten