Digitimes Research said that it is forecasting global tablet shipments at 58.7 million for Q4, 15.9% up sequentially, but 22.6% down from last year. Apple remains the biggest of the main brands, which between them will ship 38.5 million, the balance being sold by “white box” brands. Apple will ship 14 million. Just over half of the major brands’ units will be assembled in Taiwan. The dominant size is 7″ and the main platform is Android at 56.8% and iOS at 36.4% with Windows well back at 6.9%.
The firm said that non-white box units would be sold in the following sizes.
| Sales by screen size in Q3 | Share |
| 7″ | 30.30% |
| 7.9″ | 18.30% |
| 8.x” | 5.30% |
| 9.x” | 26.20% |
| 10.x | 10.60% |
| 11″+ | 9.20% |
In Q3, the company saw worldwide tablet shipments at 50.64 million, up 9% from Q2, but down 18% on an annual basis. Apple was just below 10 million. Samsung saw ASPs grow as it promoted larger sizes, but this caused its share to drop. Taiwan’s production was 15.09 million units.
