It’s no big secret that the mobile industry is going through a bit of a rough patch due to the coronavirus pandemic, but while the same appeared to be true for the tablet market during the first three months of 2020, global shipments spectacularly bounced back between April and June.
Clearly, COVID-19 had the same initial effect on both the tablet and smartphone industries, but the former recovered astonishingly quickly as more and consumers found that their remote work and education needs could be met by something cheaper and more flexible than a traditional PC.
Speaking of, desktops actually continued their free fall in the April – June 2020 timeframe, shedding 26 percent compared to Q2 2019, while laptops were on a roll, gaining almost as much as their more compact and affordable cousins in quarterly global shipments (24 percent versus last year).
The “others” section didn’t have such a great quarter, losing a lot of share as shipments grew by a microscopic 2.7 percent, which is definitely bad news for the likes of Microsoft, Google, and Walmart.