China records steady tablet shipment growth

BEIJING -- China's tablet computer shipments reached around 6.14 million units during the fourth quarter of 2020, up 5.6 percent year on year, an industrial report said.

However, the growth rate was lower than that of the global market during the same period, a report from the global market intelligence firm International Data Corporation showed.

The recovery in the global tablet market last year was driven by unprecedented consumer and educational demand as people worked from home and took courses online. However, the global tablet market will not sustain the growth momentum for long as it faces stiff competition from laptop and smartphone markets, the report said.

Unlike the global tablet computer market, the recovery of the Chinese market was not solely driven by the increasing demand amid the COVID-19 epidemic, said the report.

The Chinese market will continue to maintain its growth momentum amid vigorous development of domestic online education and rising entertainment demand such as audio-visual games.

In the fourth quarter of last year, Apple led the Chinese market with a 43-percent market share by shipping 2.64 million units.

China's tech giant Huawei ranked second with 1.65 million shipments, followed by Lenovo and Microsoft with shipments of 320,000 units and 130,000 units, respectively, the report said.