SEOUL, KOREA - The share of Apple's iPad declined in the global tablet PC market, in contrast to an increase in the share of Samsung Electronics' tablet computers.
According to an analysis of global tablet computer shipments, conducted by a market research firm IDC, the shipments of iPad stood at 19.5 million units in the first quarter of this year, commanding a market share of 39.6 percent.
This figure is down 18.5 percentage points from 58.1 percent a year ago and down 4 percentage points from 43.6 percent a quarter ago.
Samsung Electronics shipped 8.8 million units of tablet computers during the January-March period of this year, with its market share estimated at 17.9 percent. Compared to a year ago, this figure represented a 6.6-percentage-point growth.
Following them were Asus with 2.7 million units (5.5%), Amazon.com with 1.8 million units (3.7%) and Microsoft with 900,000 units (1.8%).
The size of the world's tablet PC market reached 49.2 million units in the first quarter of this year, up 142.4 percent from 20.3 million units a year ago.
