Global tablet unit shipments forecast 2027

Between 2022 and 2027, tablet shipments are forecast to fluctuate. In 2027, around 135.5 million tablets are expected to be shipped, down from 143.6 million units in 2026.

Tablet operating systems

Currently, the two major competitors in the tablet operating systems are Android and iOS. Google’s Android is currently one of the leading operating systems for tablets, with a market share of more than 50 percent, while iOS managed to grab around 30 percent. Windows tablets take the rest of the market with a little over ten percent share. However, Apple’s iOS is the leading operating system for tablets in the United States, with a market share of around 56 percent as of 2021.

iPad vs other Android tablets

In the third quarter of 2021, a total of over 42.3 million tablets were shipped across the world. As of the third quarter of 2021, Apple’s iPad held a 34.6 percent share of global tablet shipments. This marks a significant fall from the share of over 60 percent that it held in the second quarter of 2012. The company shipped a total of 12.9 million iPads in the second quarter of 2021. In comparison, Lenovo shipped 4.7 million tablets in the second quarter of the year and Amazon shipped a further 4.3 million units. Samsung, perhaps Apple's closest competitor by volume, shipped 8 million tablets. Samsung’s share in the tablet vendor market has remained relatively constant in recent quarters.