During Apple's Financial Conference Call on May 04, 2023, Apple's CFO Luca Maestri staded that "iPad generated $6.7 billion in revenue, down 13% year-over-year and in line with our expectations. This performance was due to two key factors, a tough compare against the launch of iPad Air powered by the M1 chip in the year ago quarter and headwinds from the macroeconomic environment. The iPad installed base reached a new all-time high in all geographic segments thanks to exceptional customer loyalty and a high number of new customers. In fact, over half of the customers who purchased iPads during the quarter were new to the product."

Today, Canalys reported that global tablet shipments fell 18% year on year in the first quarter of 2023 to 31.7 million units.

Apple remained the clear leader of the worldwide tablet market with 12.4 million units shipped, for a 17% year-on-year decline. Their market share, oddly enough, actually grew from 38.6% in 2022 to 38.9% in Q1 2023. A strong push to fill the channel in the previous quarter and a lack of new launches in Q1 led to a relatively muted quarter for iPads.

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Samsung held second place with 6.7 million units shipped, posting a 14% decline.

Himani Mukka, Research Manager at Canalys noted that "A drop in demand for tablets after the holidays is always expected, but the cutback in consumer spending amid high inflation has been severe this time around."  

Mukka added that "Vendors have begun showcasing products that deliver more premium user experiences, whether through chipset innovation, better displays for content consumption or improved productivity functions. Reinforcing the importance of the tablet within an ecosystem of interoperable devices will also be important to maintain momentum from the trend of hybrid workstyles." For more, read the full report from Canalys.

Hybrid workstyles will give way to hybrid foldable tablet-notebooks in force by Q4 2024 from the likes of Samsung, Microsoft, HP, Dell, Asus, Lenovo and many other OEMS. These new hybrid devices will primarily use the Qualcomm Arm-based Oryon processor which will be shown in many devices showcased at CES2024. Apple's latest patent regarding a possible hybrid iPad-notebook was published by the U.S. Patent Office last week. You could read our report on that here.