In Tim Cook's opening summary statement to kick off their fiscal Q4 financial Conference, Cook touched on the iPad this way: "We're also delighted to report our second consecutive quarter of double digit unit growth for iPad. Customers have responded very positively to the new iPad lineup. And with the launch of iOS 11, the iPad experience has become more powerful than ever … and more power than most PC notebooks."

Now in Strategy Analytics latest report we learn that in Q3 2017, Apple maintained its first position with 23 percent global tablet market share, while Samsung fell to 13 percent share. Apple's shipment grew 11% year-over-year by shipping 10, 226 as presented in Apple's Q4 2017 Unaudited Summary Data presented in our November 2nd report here.

Tablet Market Dynamics by Operating System

Apple iOS shipments (sell-in) came in above projections at 10.3 million iPads in Q3 2017, pushing its worldwide market share to 23% of the Tablet market. This represented an 11% increase annually but a 10% decline from last quarter's high. Apple is pulling off a dual strategy of growing overall market share on low cost iPads with new pricing on the 9.7-inch standard iPad while also growing premium iPad Pro sales, which is why ASPs were higher quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year at $468.

Android shipments fell to 27.8 million units worldwide in Q3 2017, down 8% from 29.9 million a year earlier and up 5% sequentially. Market share also fell year-on-year by 2 percentage points to 62% as the receding influence of White Box vendors takes a severe toll on the market and branded Android vendors have been unable to fully reclaim this lost volume. Apple's recent surge with lower prices on standard slates also plays into this change in market share.

Windows shipments fell 14% year-on-year at 6.7 million units in Q3 2017, from 7.7 million in Q3 2016. Shipments increased 13% sequentially. As a result, Windows market share fell by one percentage point to 15% year-on-year. From a market share point of view, this segment will not show fast growth again until there are more serious tablet options in the mid to low tiers.

Eric Smith, Director – Tablets and Touchscreens said that "Windows tablet demand is experiencing a slump overall, compared to this time last year as consumer market pricing and marketing have failed to connect with consumers while enterprise demand is still strong for pricier 2-in-1 tablet form factors."

Microsoft was to launch new Windows 10 + Qualcomm ARM based 2-in-1 hybrids introducing 'Always On' with a built-in SIM card that could be easily activated by your local carrier. It was rumored to launch last week and failed to do so, though technically they did say sometime in Q4 and so they may still arrive before Christmas.

In a new announcement Monday, Intel and AMD co-designed a new 8th gen Core + AMD graphics chipset that will debut in Q1 2018 aimed at propelling a new generation of high performing 2-in-1 hybrids that will have the power of gaming as good as full notebooks. This is likely to begin attracting the consumer that has so far rejected hybrids en masse.

To date Apple's iPad remains to be the clear victor in the tablet sector and only time will tell if either of these new hybrid schemes will catch on in the market. You could delve deeper into the Strategy Analytics report here.

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