Tablet Competition Is Heating Up

Global tablet shipments soared to 52.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012, as competition continues to heat up

Apple remains on top of the tablet market, but lost market share for the second consecutive quarter, both on a sequential and a year-over-year basis. The iPad mini helped Apple to increase shipments to 22.9 million units in the fourth quarter, but the company's market share slipped to 43.9 percent from 51.7 percent in last year's holiday quarter.

Ranked second, Samsung shipped 7.9 million tablets for a market share of 15.1 percent in the fourth quarter. Amazon shipped 6 million Kindle Fire tablets capturing 11.5 percent of the market. Asus' shipped 3.1 million units, most of them being Google-branded Nexus 7 tablets.

Microsoft failed to make it into the top 5, as the company only shipped 0.9 million Surface tablets for a market share of 1.7 percent.