The global tablet market has shown signs of growth for the first time in nearly three years. The first quarter of 2024 recorded a modest increase of 0.5% in worldwide tablet shipments, totalling 30.8 million units, as the International Data Corporation (IDC) reported in its Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. This growth marks a significant turnaround since the last positive growth recorded in the second quarter of 2021.

The market had previously seen a consistent decline due to saturation and the tapering of the surge in demand experienced during the pandemic. Despite ongoing macroeconomic challenges, the current rebound can be attributed to the beginning of a refresh cycle in the tablet sector. However, experts suggest that future volumes may not reach the high levels seen during the pandemic years. However, the trend towards premium tablets highlights a growing consumer preference for productivity-oriented devices.

Market Outlook 

Anuroopa Nataraj, a senior research analyst at IDC, stated that the tablet market’s recovery in the first quarter is a positive sign. However, the real benefits are expected to come from the upcoming refresh cycles and increased adoption in the commercial sectors, particularly education and the gig economy. 

The competition from PCs and smartphones continues to threaten sustained growth in the tablet market. Nataraj also noted the potential benefits of integrating AI capabilities into tablets, similar to trends observed in other tech device markets. This could offer a new dimension of growth and innovation in the sector.

Despite the challenges, the shift towards higher-end, feature-rich tablets indicates a changing consumer behaviour aimed at higher productivity and enhanced user experience, setting the stage for a dynamic evolution in the global tablet market.

Top 5 Tablet Brands

Apple continues to lead the market despite an 8.5% drop in shipments year-over-year, attributed to economic downturns and a gap in new model introductions. The company shipped 9.9 million units, focusing on clearing inventories of older models in anticipation of new releases scheduled for the second quarter of 2024.

Samsung holds the second position with 6.7 million units shipped, experiencing a 5.8% decline from the previous year. The company faced stiff competition and promotional activities from other brands in Europe and the Asia/Pacific regions, coupled with a delay in introducing new products.

Huawei showed a significant recovery, securing third place with a remarkable 43.6% increase in shipments, totalling 2.9 million units. This growth is likely linked to the resurgence of its smartphone business, which enhanced its tablet market share by 2.8 basis points over the previous year.

Lenovo reported a 13.2% increase in shipments, driven by its expanding detachable tablet portfolio, notably the Tab P series. Despite this, slate tablets still dominate nearly 80% of Lenovo’s total tablet shipments.

Xiaomi remains in the top five, with a notable 92.6% increase in shipments, reaching 1.8 million units. The brand has seen substantial growth outside its largest market, China, with triple-digit increases across nearly all other regions.

The iPad Mini 2021 refresh came two years after its predecessor, and that record for the longest gap between an iPad mini refresh has been broken as Apple hasn’t refreshed the same iPad since 2021. However, does it even need a refresh yet, and how well has it aged since our last review of the iPad Mini 6? Let’s take a look at the iPad Mini 6 in this review about 2.5 years after it first came out.

When we reviewed the iPad Mini 6 in December 2021, we had few complaints and mostly liked everything about it, be it the build quality, the performance, the speakers, or the cameras. However, that review came out two months after we bought the device, and 2.5 years later, our opinions have definitely changed.

The iPad mini 6 still feels like a solidly built tablet. I personally switched to the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra earlier this year, and it’s a much bigger and more expensive tablet. Even when compared to that, the iPad Mini 6 didn’t feel lagging behind in terms of the build. It still feels as premium as it did on day one, 1 and I would say it has also aged well in this area. The form factor is still impressive to this date, resulting in ease for typing, watching videos and more.

The touch ID, however, is still plagued with the same issue it had back then, and that’s how inaccurate it is in detection of my fingerprint. It does work well when it has to but often, I find myself unlocking the tablet with the 4-digit PIN instead. That way, I don’t have to go through the painful and annoying process of removing and keeping my fingerprint on the button time and again until it detects the print. Often, it fails to identify and anyways disables the ID, therefore asking me to unlock with the PIN.

The Apple Pencil 2 magnets have also held up well, but the pencil itself hasn’t. It does have some marks on it and has also left some on the side of the iPad it attaches itself to. The speakers, as I said in my former review, have the punch and sound quite decent but I feel they could have been louder.

The IPS LCD display on the front possesses great colours and is sharp with text and other content. Now that I am used to the AMOLED panel of the Tab S9 Ultra, for obvious reasons, the panel on the iPad Mini 6 doesn’t look equally good. Even for the price Apple is selling this iPad at, its high time it switches to an OLED panel but as per leaks, that seems to be reserved only for the Pro models for now and not even for the iPad Air.

If not a better panel, Apple can at least increase the Refresh Rate but considering how the brand has been adamant about the decisions it makes, that would also be an impractical expectation to keep, for now.

The iPad Mini 6 is powered by Apple’s A15 Bionic chip with a 6‑core CPU, 5-core graphics and 16-core Neural Engine. Before I move ahead, I’ll quote what I said in my initial review of the iPad Mini 6 with regards to its performance. I said, “As far as performance is concerned, this tablet is a powerhouse. It handles everything you throw at it with ease. Be it gaming or a CPU heavy task, the iPad Mini 6 just gets through it like a beast. There were no lags or anything as such and even gaming on the tablet was as fun as I had expected it to be”.

About 2.5 years later, I cannot stand by the statement as the performance on the iPad Mini 6 has continuously deteriorated since then. While the initial updates made it smoother, the iPadOS 16 update made things worse a year after the launch of the Mini 6. The device is still capable of handling tasks well, thanks to the powerful chip, but the software begins to struggle as soon as you put some load on the CPU, paired with a good amount of heating as well.

The iPad Mini 6 never heated in the initial year but it did begin to get uncomfortably hot at the lower left part after the first major iPadOS update. If that wasn’t enough, Safari would constantly freeze up on me while I used it and the tablet would then begin to heat up. Alongside frequent freezes, I have also faced circumstances that I can clearly describe as lagging, as the tablet would simply start behaving like a sub-Rs 15,000 tablet at times where the App would open after a 5-second delay after I clicked on the icon.

As far as software is concerned, the tablet hasn’t really aged well. Considering its Apple, one would expect the tablet to run smoothly as it’s still the latest the company offers in the mini lineup but unfortunately, that isn’t the case.

The cameras on the back and front work as they should. Aside from that, the battery life has dropped significantly and that’s a given, taking into consideration my charging habits where I would charge it from 30% to 100% on a daily basis. It can’t last a day with heavy use and would go down below 20% by afternoon if constantly in use. Currently, with moderate use, it can stretch up to 24 hours but with the same type of usage, I could easily get past the 2-day mark till December 2022, post which the battery backup began to fall.

What iPad Mini 7 Should Bring?

Apple is all set to introduce new iPads tomorrow, but that may not include the mini, according to leaks. However, leaks suggest that iPad mini is still set to get a refresh later this year and I wish Apple would make some necessary changes this year to the iPad Mini 7.

Even though the iPad Mini 7 is rumoured to get a chip upgrade only, it does need a better display that’s sharper and has a higher resolution, due to the higher price of the tablet as the current panel doesn’t match the standard of the competition. Aside from that, I feel Apple should give the iPad Mini 7 the latest A-series chip if not the M-series, like it did with the iPad Air.

The newer chip would result in a better performance which is much needed so the iPad Mini ages well it due course of time. The software optimisation also has to be handled in a better manner. Finally, an upgrade to the touch ID would be appreciated along with a bigger battery as well.