Samsung dominates tablet sales in Europe, Middle East, Africa- IDC

Samsung Electronics, a South Korean tech giant, was the top tablet vendor in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) in Q4, 2020, a report shows.

Shortages and price hikes in notebooks is pushing consumers to shift their focus to tablets as lockdowns and stay at home measures remain in place,” said Nikolina Jurisic, a senior research manager at International Data Corporation(IDC) Europe.

Samsung sold 4 Million tablets

Samsung Electronics shipped 4 million tablets in the EMEA market in the October-December 2020 period for a 28.1% market share, according to industry researcher International Data Corporation (IDC).

A year ago, the figures were up when the South Korean tech giant shipped 3.2 million tablets for a 24.8% market share.

“Samsung held first position in EMEA due to its positive and strong growth across the region and mainly driven by its presence in digitalization projects in schools in Central and Eastern European countries,” IDC said.

According to IDC, the tablet market in the Central and Eastern Europe region posted 32.3% year-on-year growth, far exceeding that of the Middle East and Africa market’s 10.3% year-on-year growth and the Western European market’s 7.7% year-on-year growth.

Apple, Lenovo, Huawei, Microsoft are the other big brands

Samsung was followed by Apple, which shipped 3.5 million tablets in the EMEA market in the last three months of 2020, up 17.1% from a year ago, for a 24.6% share.

Lenovo Group Limited came in third with an 18.3% share after shipping 2.6 million tablets, up 152.8% from a year earlier, while Chinese tech titan Huawei Technologies Co was in the fourth spot with a 7.7 per cent share after its tablet shipments declined 20.3% year-on-year to 1.1 million units.

Microsoft Corp. was the fifth-largest vendor with a 3.2 per cent share with shipments of 461,000 units.

Online schooling and digitalization projects in education are visible across the region, with the largest recorded in Romania, Kazakhstan, Turkey, and South Africa.