Despite growing at a slower pace than all its rivals, Apple still rules the global tablet market - Related to has, but, does, high, tablet

Despite growing at a slower pace than all its rivals, Apple still rules the global tablet market

These are unsurprisingly the same number one and number two vendors from 2023 (and 2022, and 2021, and 2020), and while their worldwide sales figures were up year-on-year both in Q4 and 2024 as a whole, their improvements this time around fell short of the achievements attained by the market's third, fourth, and fifth-largest players.

Does anyone here remember the "iPad-esque" Android slates Xiaomi unveiled just a little over three months ago ? Well, China-based consumers definitely paid attention to that announcement, flocking to local stores to propel the brand in the global top five both between October and December and as far as the entire last year is concerned.

Thanks primarily to the Pad 7 Pro , Xiaomi managed to boost its Q4 shipment scores by more than 50 percent, but clearly, that was not the firm's only hugely successful tablet in 2024. That's because Xiaomi 's full-year sales results jumped by an even more remarkable [website] percent from 2023, leaving Amazon behind and threatening Huawei and Lenovo's positions in the global ranking.

If the China-based outfit can maintain this monumental growth rate (even partially), there's obviously a very good chance we'll see a podium change this year. Perhaps even as early as this quarter.

Of course, Xiaomi is unlikely to (ever) threaten Apple 's industry supremacy despite the comparatively modest 2024 growth of the iPad lineup. The Cupertino-based tech giant increased its tablet shipments by only [website] percent last year compared to 2023 and by [website] percent during the October-December 2024 quarter compared to the same timeframe of the previous year.

Those may not sound like very impressive numbers, but they were still enough to push iPad sales to a Q4 total of nearly 17 million units and a 2024 tally of [website] million. Now those are some pretty mind-blowing figures, especially when you look at Samsung 's scores in second place.

Galaxy Tab S10 Plus, Interestingly, Samsung had a similar but opposite year to Apple (if that makes sense), improving its tablet sales less in Q4 than 2024 as a whole rather than the other way around. For the time being, the organization behind such box-office hits as the Tab S9 FE , and Tab S6 Lite holds a comfortable advantage over Huawei and Lenovo, but Xiaomi could get close to that number two spot in the relatively near future.

After surprisingly thriving in the early stages of the pandemic, the global tablet market started to shrink in 2021, continuing its decline in 2022 and 2023. But 2024 sales were up a healthy [website] percent from the previous year, and there are plenty of early signs suggesting 2025 will be a year of progress as well. After surprisingly thriving in the early stages of the pandemic, the global tablet market started to shrink in 2021, continuing its decline in 2022 and 2023. But 2024 sales were up a healthy [website] percent from the previous year, and there are plenty of early signs suggesting 2025 will be a year of progress as well.

That being mentioned, nothing is certain until it's certain, especially with US tariffs deemed a "risk that could dent demand, particularly for high-end devices." Speaking of the US, it's interesting (and a little sad) to point out that North America was the only major region where tablet shipments didn't actually increase last year compared to 2023.

All in all, Canalys estimates that [website] million units were sold around the world in 2024, which is a pretty big number (especially compared to the previous year's [website] mil total), but still slightly below 2022's tally, not to mention 2020's industry all-time record.

A lot of what will happen in 2025 hinges on the willingness and ambition of Chinese brands like Honor, Huawei, and Xiaomi to continue expanding their presence in their "home market and beyond", as well as various education projects in countries like Japan, and of course, Apple's changes and innovations for the top-selling iPad Pro iPad Air, and "regular" iPad lines. In short, there are a lot of variables at play that could help the industry grow at a solid pace... or not so much.

The latest global tablet market findings from Canalys is out, and the research firm's findings and estimates for 2024 couldn't be more bittersweet for both the industry's gold and silver medalists.

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Does the Samsung Galaxy S25 run as smoothly as the Ultra?

The entire Samsung Galaxy S25 series promises the best performance ever seen from a smartphone thanks to their Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy processor. However, we know that Qualcomm’s latest chip can run a tad on the warm side, so can the compact Galaxy S25 really keep up with the larger and presumably cooler Galaxy S25 Ultra? I’ve run our usual benchmarks on all three units to see if any consumers stand to miss out or if it’s all even-steven.

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We’ll start by looking at CPU performance via GeekBench 6. Despite running the test three times, our average single-core CPU score, in particular, is a little bit lower on the regular Galaxy S25. We’re talking about 9% slower than the Plus and 12% behind the Ultra. Temperatures are the most likely culprit, with clock speeds possibly dipping lower towards the end of the test to keep things cool, but that doesn’t bode well, given GeekBench 6’s relatively short run time. Thankfully, multi-core scores are closer, with just a 2% gap between the smallest and biggest models, so real-world app performance is likely to feel identical.

This is reflected in our PCMark Work [website] test, which also presents all three devices to be within a percentage point or two of each other. My takeaway is that all three phones will perform very well for typical daily tasks that require short bursts of single-core and longer periods of multi-core processing. There’s certainly nothing to suggest that the regular Galaxy S25 has a poor performance next to its larger siblings, despite the slightly iffy single-core CPUI result. Let’s see if temperatures are more of an issue when running these three phones through some GPU stress tests.

No surprise: the Galaxy S25 Ultra offers the best cooling and performance.

Across all our stress test runs, there’s one clearly identifiable trend: the Galaxy S25 Ultra is by far the coolest of the three phones. Its temperatures peaked at [website]°C compared to [website]°C and [website]°C for the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus, and it idles significantly cooler as well. We noticed a similar trend last year, with the S24 and S24 Plus ending up with higher temperatures than the Ultra during stress tests.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra has a 40% larger vapor chamber compared to last year’s model, which shaves a degree or so off its temperatures while accommodating the faster and hotter 8 Elite. It’s clearly much improved than the cooling setup in the regular models. This leaves it with a bit more room to keep performance up when pushing the GPU hard for long periods of time, which certainly makes it the improved choice of the three for gamers.

In terms of performance, the Ultra is the model to beat. It has a roughly 6% higher peak score than the regular S25 in 3DMark’s Wild Life Extreme and Solar Bay tests, with the S25 Plus falling between the two. That’s not going to be a night and day difference to game frame rates, but it does mean it stands a enhanced chance of tightly locking to 60fps in the most demanding Android games.

Furthermore, the Ultra sustains higher performance levels during higher temperatures than both of its smaller siblings, reaffirming it as the best pick of the three for longer gaming sessions thanks to its larger and improved vapor chamber. That mentioned, none of these three are particularly brilliant when it comes to sustained performance over these stress tests.

If you’re wondering which phone to pick from a pure performance perspective, then price order dictates the standings. The regular Galaxy S25 is a tiny bit slower than its bigger siblings in CPU and GPU tests, while the Ultra is by far the superior model in terms of cooling, with the Plus nestled somewhere between (but closer to the regular S25).

The Galaxy S25 is the slowest of the three, but it's far from a slouch.

However, that’s probably an unfair way to frame these three. Aside from stress testing, which puts the phones under more stress than most clients ever will, there’s virtually nothing to tell between the three. Even then, the entire Galaxy S25 series boasts a substantial jump in processing power from their predecessors without any signs of overheating issues we’ve seen from other phones, which is perhaps the most crucial point here.

In any case, performance certainly isn’t the only factor in determining whether an upgrade to the S25 is worthwhile. But with much of the other hardware remaining unchanged from the previous year, it’s probably a bigger factor than it has been in years goneby.

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Samsung has reportedly set a pretty high Galaxy S25 series sales target, but is it realistic?

Trade-in Pre-order the Galaxy S25 Ultra for up to $1,250+ off $399 99 $1419 99 $1020 off (72%) The Galaxy S25 Ultra is officially here! You can now pre-order the mighty Samsung flagship for up to $1,250+ off at the Samsung Store! Eligible device trade-ins help you save up to $900, and you also get a $120 free storage upgrade. Additionally, you get up to $350 Samsung Credits. This offer is not available in your area. Trade-in Pre-order the Galaxy S25 Plus for up to $800+ off $299 99 $999 99 $700 off (70%) The exciting Galaxy S25 Plus has finally been revealed. Pre-orders are now open, and you can pre-order a unit for up to $700 off at the Samsung Store with eligible trade-ins. There's an additional $100 Samsung Credit available, which includes your Reservation Gift. This offer is not available in your area.

If you want to wax philosophical, any number can be described as big or small depending on one's perspective and terms of comparison. But while 40 million units may feel like a drop in the ocean when considering that roughly [website] billion (with a "b") smartphones were sold in total around the world last year , that's an unquestionably tall order for a single 2025 model... or three.

Galaxy S24 , S24 Plus, and S24 Ultra copies altogether between January and December 2024, thus improving the first-year tally of the early 2023-released Galaxy S23 , S23 Plus, and S23 Ultra by six million units or so. For context, it was lately reported that Samsung managed to ship a little over 37 million, S24 Plus, and S24 Ultra copies altogether between January and December 2024, thus improving the first-year tally of the early 2023-released, S23 Plus, and S23 Ultra by six million units or so.

Galaxy S25 That's a large and somewhat unexpected year-on-year progress of close to 20 percent, so further boosting that figure by almost 10 percent to around 40 million units for the S25 Plus , and S25 Ultra this year seems... pretty hard to pull off.

Galaxy S25 family as a whole. Of course, things could have been even worse on the pricing front, which doesn't change the fact that Is it impossible? Probably not, but Samsung isn't making its mission any easier to complete with all the conflicting info regarding the S25 Ultra's S Pen functionality or the sky-high prices of thefamily as a whole. Of course, things could have been even worse on the pricing front, which doesn't change the fact that those launch deals may need to be improved before long.

Free storage upgrades, store credit, gift cards, and massive discounts with eligible trade-ins are all nice and everything, but some outright price cuts with no strings attached and no questions asked would be even enhanced for a lot of prospective buyers in the US.

Will the Galaxy S25 Ultra prove the most successful member of the new trio?

Most likely, and that's not just based on my gut feeling. Of those [website] million S24 series phones shipped in 2024, [website] million were apparently super-premium Ultras, with the base model accounting for a nice [website] million chunk of that total too and the Plus reportedly selling in just a little over 7 million copies. Most likely, and that's not just based on my gut feeling. Of those [website] million S24 series phones shipped in 2024, [website] million were apparently super-premium Ultras, with the base model accounting for a nice [website] million chunk of that total too and the Plus reportedly selling in just a little over 7 million copies.

A somewhat similar split was noticed in South Korea during the first few days of Galaxy S25 series pre-orders , with the Ultra accounting for no less than 52 percent of the family's early record-breaking numbers. What's perhaps a bit odd about these figures coming out of Samsung's homeland is that they put the S25 Plus unexpectedly close to the "vanilla" S25.

That's probably just a regional thing, mind you, with the compact Galaxy S25 still looking very likely to heavily outsell the Plus variant on a global scale while not being able to threaten the supremacy of the Ultra model.

It's also hard to believe that Samsung will crush any other Galaxy S24 records anywhere else besides Korea, but even if the S25 roster ends up meeting the firm's 40 million worldwide sales expectations, that should be celebrated as a solid achievement... for a rather unremarkable-looking handset trio. Of course, that remains a pretty big "if."

If you're feeling underwhelmed by the Galaxy S25 family's rather modest upgrades or outright disillusioned with some of the downgrades and compromises we're still discovering well after Samsung's January 22 Unpacked event, the enterprise certainly hopes you'll remain in the minority of prospective buyers.

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