In the third quarter of 2024, China's smart tablet market shipments reached 7.131 million units, a year-on-year increase of 3.5%, which not only shows the steady growth of the market, but also reflects the continued popularity of smart tablets among consumers. Behind this growth is the change of brand competition landscape, the promotion of technological innovation and the diversification of market demand.
1. Changes in the brand competition landscape
In terms of brand competition, Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi, and Honor continue to hold the top four positions in the market, while iFLYTEK replaced Lenovo as the fifth place. While Apple still tops the online market, its market share fell 8.6 percentage points to 25.0 percent, and sales fell 22.1 percent year-on-year. This change may be related to factors such as the lack of product innovation, the asynchronous global AI technology, and the strong rise of domestic enterprises. At the same time, Huawei's market share increased by 5.3 percentage points to 20.3%, a year-on-year increase of 41.3%, mainly due to the strong sales of the MatePad 11.5"S and MatePad SE series.
Figure: The performance of the top 5 brands in China's smart tablet online market in Q3 2024
2. Technological innovation and market segmentation
In terms of technological innovation, the market penetration rate of OLED display technology has increased rapidly, reaching 5.3% in the third quarter of 2024. Apple is equipped with an OLED display screen for the first time on the new iPad Pro released in May, and Huawei also has a place in the OLED market, forming a situation where Apple and Huawei are both leading the way. In addition, although the sales share of ePaper (e-paper) products is still growing year-on-year, it ushered in a quarter-on-quarter decline for the first time in the third quarter of 2024, which may be related to the diversion of ePaper's user resources by paper-like technologies such as AG anti-glare.
In terms of market segmentation, the demand for learning tablets continues to be strong, especially the efforts of education and training enterprises in the low-end price range, which has improved the availability of high-quality educational resources. The strong growth of iFLYTEK's learning tablet product, the P30, has contributed to the potential of the education track.
3. Market Forecasts and Future Prospects
Lotu Technology predicts that in 2024, the shipment volume of China's consumer-grade smart tablet market in all channels will reach 28.63 million units, a year-on-year increase of 1.6%. This forecast provides a positive signal for the development of the smart tablet market and also provides a valuable market reference for related enterprises and brands. With the changes in social life and social mode, the use scenario of smart tablets has changed from a home audio-visual entertainment tool to a personal mobile terminal device, and it is not only a productivity tool, but also broadens the application boundary.
4. Conclusion
To sum up, China's smart tablet market in the third quarter of 2024 showed a steady growth trend, with significant changes in the brand competition landscape, and technological innovation and market segmentation becoming the key factors driving market development. With the continuous advancement of technology and the diversification of consumer needs, the smart tablet market is expected to continue to maintain its growth momentum, and at the same time, it will also usher in more opportunities and challenges. Huawei's strong growth momentum and Apple's declining market share are signs that the market landscape may be about to usher in major changes, while the rise of iFLYTEK shows the huge potential of the education market. In the future, with the combination of AI technology and smart tablets, we are expected to see a two-way upgrade of productivity and learning ability, bringing new growth points to the smart tablet market.
