Cheaper rivals eat into Apple's China tablet share - Financial Times

©Getty Samsung almost doubled its market share for tablets in China to 11% in the June quarter Apple's share of the fiercely competitive Chinese tablet market has almost halved in the past year, as cheaper devices using Google's Android platform rapidly overtake the iPad. The California-based company shipped 1.48m iPads in China in the second quarter, accounting for 28 per cent of tablets – a sharp drop on the 49 per cent market share it recorded a year ago, according to research company IDC Meanwhile the number of Android-based devices shipped by Samsung rose fourfold to 571,000, almost doubling its share of the Chinese tablet market to 11 per cent. Much of Apple's competition came from small domestic rivals; tablet makers with a market share under 1 per cent accounted for 50 per cent of shipments, compared to 36 per cent last year. The picture in China echoes statistics showing Apple is losing ground in the global tablet market, where Apple's market share dropped to 32.4 per cent in the second quarter from 60.3 per cent a year earlier, IDC said earlier in August. "Most . . . Android players are growing with strong price advantage," said IDC analyst Dickie Chang. "Samsung, Lenovo, Asus, and Acer are providing more competitive products with [countrywide reach]. Meanwhile, consumers are familiar with Android OS from smartphone use." The waning growth of Apple's iPad shipments follows a similar trend in smartphones, where devices using Android and Chinese brands have dethroned Apple with cheaper feature-rich handsets. A principal factor in the rise of Android tablets has been the falling price of components, which has enabled low-cost Chinese brands to make their presence felt in the tablet market. The average per-piece price of the touch panels used in 7-inch tablets fell 7.5 per cent to $15.60 between the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year, according to supply chain analysts at IHS. Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek, an important supplier to low-cost Chinese smartphone makers, has been focusing on new chips designed for tablets, while cheaper Chinese chip designers have been jumping into the tablet market too. Mr Chang said Apple's slower iPad shipments growth came as the company adjusted its Greater China channel inventory strategy to healthier levels, after inventory rose in the first quarter even as it shipped 3m iPads in China. Apple could turn things round later this year when the new iPad launches in China, said Mr Chang. "Meanwhile, if Apple cut the price of previous generation [products] . . . more consumers would love to buy the Apple iPad." Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web. via Technology - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGyxvxA6Yc330HupQmTx5bmka6zFg&url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2e3c90fa-0a39-11e3-aeab-00144feabdc0.html

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