(Yicai) Feb. 21 -- Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies seized the crown in China’s tablet market in the fourth quarter last year, ousting US rival Apple from first place in terms of quarterly shipments for the first time since statistics began in 2010, according to the latest data.

Huawei accounted for 30.8 percent of the country’s tablet shipments in the three months ended Dec. 31, up 9.6 percentage points from a year ago, while Apple’s share tumbled 6.7 percentage points to 30.5 percent, according to a report released by US market intelligence firm IDC today.

The pair were followed by Xiaomi, Honor and Lenovo in third, fourth and fifth places with 9.4 percent, 7.6 percent and 7.2 percent of the market, respectively.

Some manufacturers took advantage of the Double Eleven online shopping bonanza that fell in November to offer substantial discounts to promote sales, Massachusetts-based IDC said. But this lowered the average price of a tablet by 2.5 percent from the previous quarter.

Last year, tablet sales in China slowed noticeably after peaking during the pandemic and consumers became more cost conscious. Overall, tablet shipments slumped 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter year on year to 8.2 million units, while annual sales sank 4.5 percent to 28.7 million units, the report said.

This year mainstream manufacturers will pay more attention to user experience and sustainable development of their brands, IDC China senior research manager Gan Miao said. Developers will focus on improving the basic abilities of system software, applying artificial intelligence generation technology and launching system-level combined products.

Editor: Kim Taylor