Market research firm IDC has released a new batch of figures out into the world, showing that while Apple still holds the largest section of the global market, the likes of Samsung is quickly catching up.

Last year this time Apple’s iPad had a hold on just over 40% of the world’s tablet market and while the fruit company grew its shipments for Q3 slightly year-on-year, rising from 14 million to 14.1 million units shifted in the last quarter this year, Apple’s share of the market has dipped. By more than 10%.

Apple’s new 29.6% share of the market has been absorbed by the likes of Samsung, which grew from 12.4% to 20.4% of the global tablet space. Samsung shipped 9.7 million tablets in Q3 2013, compared to just 4.3 million this time last year. The rest of Apple’s slack has been taken up by Asus, Lenovo and Acer, all of whom grew their portion of the tablet pie. Lenovo showed perhaps the best improvement, going up from 1.1% to 4.8% market share – an improvement of 420.7% according to the IDC.

The upshot of this is that Apple still holds the lead when it comes to the world’s tablets but Samsung and other Android-based companies are making some lengthy strides. It might not be long before Cupertino is displaced at the top of the log.

Source: via Engadget