The iPad is the true king of the tablet scene

According to the market analysis company, iPad shipments worldwide increased by a whopping 16.5% in the last quarter of 2025. Apple set a new record, shipping more tablets in Q4 than in any previous quarter.

Not only does the iPad outperform all other competitors, but Apple’s tablet also beats its top four competitors combined shipments for the last quarter.

iPad growth outpaces tablet market as Apple tightens lead

Ever since Steve Jobs first introduced the iPad in 2010, Apple has maintained a monolithic grip on the global tablet market, effectively turning the once niche gadget into the dominant personal computer category. By successfully positioning the device as a powerful tool for creatives and a simple media center for regular users, Apple has achieved a rare level of brand ubiquity where the word “iPad” is now largely synonymous with the entire tablet category.

This is reflected in the high demand for the product. Apple shipped 19.6 million iPadOS tablets in Q4 2025, analysts at Omdia reported Wednesday. This beats the previous record set in 2022 during the Covid pandemic, when millions of people bought iPads while sheltering at home.

The double-digit growth was “driven by strong demand for the 11th generation iPads and the iPad Pro range with the M5,” Omdia noted. The M5 iPad Pro was released during the last quarter, while the iPad 11 came out in early 2025.

Omdia’s analysts have to estimate the number of iPads shipped in the December quarter, as Apple itself does not provide that number. It reveals revenue coming from tablet sales, and that figure reached $8.6 billion in Q4, a 6% year-over-year increase.

Crushing the competition

Samsung is a distant second in the global tablet market. According to Omdia, it shipped 6.4 million tablets in Q4 — less than a third of Apple’s total. And its shipments fell 9.2% compared to the same quarter a year earlier.

Lenovo was in third place with 3.9 million tablets sold last quarter. That’s a 36% year-on-year increase, but Omdia warned that the growth was “supported by proactive withdrawals ahead of expected price increases”. In other words, growth is not sustainable.

Ed Hardy He has been writing about the technique full-time for 25 years and has been using it for much longer. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but he now uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. It is written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthandas well as other sites.