While global smartphone shipments continue to fluctuate from quarter to quarter due to many different reasons ranging from complex macroeconomic issues to tariff volatility and the industry’s general lack of innovation over the last few years, the tablet market is amazingly posting year-on-year growth for the sixth quarter in a row.
Of course, worldwide tablet sales aren’t exactly doubling from year to year, but a 9 percent increase in the market’s Q2 numbers compared to the same period of 2024 is certainly nothing to sneeze at either.
Surprisingly enough, this latest healthy progress is not primarily owed to the largest vendor out there… or even the industry’s second-biggest player. Instead, it’s the companies ranked third, fourth, and fifth between April and June 2025 that shined brightest in terms of year-on-year growth.
Yes, Huawei managed to jump from 2.5 million unit shipments in Q2 2024 to a little over 3.2 million now, extending its previously very fragile lead over Lenovo and consolidating its place on the podium with an 8.3 percent slice of the global pie (up from 7 percent).
Lenovo’s 24.7 percent rise from under 2.5 million unit shipments to more than 3 million is also not too shabby, keeping the China-based brand in fourth place for yet another quarter, but Xiaomi is closing in on both Lenovo and Huawei fast after improving its Q2 tally by no less than 42.3 percent between 2024 and 2025.
It pretty much goes without saying that the flourishing numbers of all three of these vendors are derived mainly from China, which means that one of the key reasons why Apple and Samsung are unable to keep up with those scores right now might be their weak presence in Huawei, Lenovo, and Xiaomi’s huge domestic market.
At the end of the day, however, Apple is still the global tablet market’s top dog, with more than 14 million unit shipments and 36.1 percent share in Q2 2025. One of those numbers is actually (slightly) higher than how the company ended Q2 2024, which is not what we can say about Samsung.
The industry’s silver medalist remains miles ahead of Huawei, but both its quarterly shipments and market share are down from last year’s April to June timeframe, which can’t be viewed as a positive thing for the world’s number one smartphone vendor.
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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian’s passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for ‘adequate’ over ‘overpriced’.
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