The unusual times we live in today have driven customers to buy PCs, laptops and tablets for education and entertainment. According to Canalys’ latest report, manufacturers shipped 52.8 million tablets in the fourth quarter of 2020 – the highest amount on record.
The analysis also found that Chromebook sales had exploded, with 11.2 million shipments in the fourth quarter of 2020 and 30.7 million for the calendar year. This is almost double compared to 2019, when manufacturers only shipped 14.7 million units.
| Ships / Company | Q4 2019 (in millions) | Q4 2020 (in millions) | Change | 2019 (in millions) | 2020 (in millions) | Change |
| Apple | 13.7 | 19.2 | 40% | 47.3 | 58.8 | 24% |
| Samsung | 7.1 | 9.9 | 41% | 22.1 | 31 | 40% |
| Huawei | 4.5 | 3.5 | (24%) | 15 | 16.3 | 8% |
| Amazon | 4.2 | 6.5 | 54% | 13.9 | 15.9 | 14% |
| Lenovo | 2.5 | 5.6 | 125% | 8.4 | 14.2 | 70% |
| Other | 2.3 | 8.1 | 257% | 18.6 | 24.5 | 32% |
| Total | 34.3 | 52.8 | 125.3 | 160.6 |
Apple led the tablet market with 19.2 million iPads shipped over the holiday season, the highest amount since 2014. Throughout the year, Cupertino outperformed the second Samsung on two occasions.
The last three months of 2020 have been overwhelmingly positive for Lenovo, which has increased its shipments by 125% – from 2.5 to 5.6 million, propelling the company into the Top 5 of the year. Huawei was the only major player not to take advantage of the situation, and its shipments fell 24% in Q4 2020, ultimately allowing Amazon and Lenovo to narrow the distance for third place.
Canalys also provided an overall analysis of the PC, Laptop and Tablet market. Lenovo retained its top spot for 2020 with 87 million devices shipped, but Apple’s strong Macbook performance helped the company comfortably take second place, ahead of HP, Dell and Samsung. The overall market saw 458.2 million devices shipped, an increase of 17% from 2019.
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