Samsung takes 28.3% share as top tablet vendor in Europe, Middle East, Africa

Samsung Electronics Co. shipped 3.37 million tablets in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) market in the second quarter, taking a 28.3 percent market share, up 7.6 percent from a year earlier.

Industry researcher International Data Corp. attributed Samsung's lead in EMEA with its large deployments in some developing economies.

Apple Inc. was relegated to second place after its market share dropped to 21.5 percent, down from 25 percent from last year when it shipped 2.56 million iPads.

Coming in third was China's Huawei Technologies Co. with a 15 percent market share.

Rounding up the top five were Lenovo Group Ltd. with 12.1 percent and Amazon.com Inc. with 3.8 percent.

The EMEA tablet market grew 23.8 percent on-year in the second quarter, with shipments of 11.9 million units, marking its largest growth since 2013.

Stefania Lorenz of IDC attributed the spike in consumer demand for tablets to the lack of notebooks in the market.

She added that tablets were not expected to be the first choice for online schooling or working.

IDC expects the EMEA tablet market to increase 10.9 percent on-year in the third quarter and end 2020 with a 3.7 percent on-year growth.