Global tablet sales up 13.1% in the second quarter, and it's not all about technology

In the second quarter of 2025, global tablet shipments increased by 13.1% year-on-year to 38.3 million units, according to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker.

Reasons for the growth

There are many reasons. Among them:

• Continuation of the trend from Q1
• The spread of educational programmes
• In the US, suppliers increased device stocks ahead of the expected tariff increase
• Increased number of cheap models for emerging markets
• Accelerated device replacement due to AI fever

Amazon showed the largest growth, with its tablet business growing by 205% over the year, allowing the company to return to the top 5 global tablet manufacturers. This clearly underlines that the main driver of these changes is still the political turbulence in the US. This means that in the near future we will see a collapse in sales, at least due to the saturation of the market and retail channels, and possibly due to the introduction of tariffs.

Xiaomi ranks second in terms of success with 42%. The top five market leaders all grew: Apple, Samsung, Lenovo, Amazon, and Xiaomi, but Apple tablets showed the lowest growth of only 2.4%. This is likely due to the fact that the company has not made any high-profile announcements recently, and their customers are usually less vulnerable to price increases.