LONDON -- New research from Omdia has revealed that the worldwide tablet market maintained its upward momentum in Q3 2025 with shipments reaching 40 million units, up 5% year-on-year and marking the seventh consecutive quarter of growth.

This sustained growth was fueled by strong demand across the Middle East and Central Europe, along with continued strong consumer purchasing in China. The market also benefitted from a surge in Chrome tablet shipments to Japan, driven by the government’s GIGA 2.0 education initiative. Meanwhile, Chromebook shipments reached 4.2 million units, up 3% year on year, as renewed activity in education deployments gained momentum worldwide, with notable volumes supporting Japan’s education goals.

Omdia Research Manager Himani Mukka commented, “The tablet market, which remains largely consumer-driven, has shown resilience in 2025 despite ongoing macroeconomic headwinds. Shipment performance has consistently outperformed expectations, recording uninterrupted growth for the past two years. Consumer demand has been driven by factors such as frequent new product launches, government subsidies, increased appetite for kids’ and gaming tablets, competitive pricing, promotional campaigns, and seasonal back-to-school buying, which varies across regions depending on academic calendars.”

She added, “In Q3 2025, the market saw seasonal sell-in ahead of the holiday period in the West and both holiday and 11.11 sales in Asia-Pacific and China. However, sell-in is expected to remain muted and largely flat in Q4, with a similar outlook extending into 2026 as tablet replacement demand is projected to soften.”

The global tablet market grew 5.1% year on year in Q3 2025, largely fueled by strong demand in China and the expansion of Chinese tablet vendors into the Middle East and Asia Pacific regions. Apple recorded flat growth, building on its strong Q3 2024 performance with 14.3 million units shipped. Samsung also posted flat growth, shipping 6.9 million units. Lenovo led the growth among major vendors with 3.7 million units shipped, marking a robust 23% year-on-year increase, driven by the expansion of its commercial tablet business in EMEA. Huawei followed in fourth place with 3.2 million units and 11.5% growth, while Xiaomi completed the top five, shipping 2.6 million units with a modest 2.3% annual increase.

“In addition to Japan’s GIGA 2.0 project, Chromebook education deployments are expanding across other markets, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe and North America,” said Kieren Jessop, Research Manager at Omdia. “In North America, the K-12 device landscape is split, with a significant share using Chromebooks while others continue to rely on iPads. Looking ahead, we expect education funding in the US to increasingly come from state or local rather than federal sources, which could provide a steady boost to Chromebook shipments in the region. A notable example of this is New York City’s partnership with Dell and T-Mobile to provide around 350,000 LTE/5G-connected Chromebooks to public school students during the current school year.”

In Q3 2025, the Chromebook book market grew by 3.1%. Lenovo led the segment, shipping 1.4 million units - a strong 54.6% year-on-year growth. Acer followed with an 18% market share and global shipments of 0.8 million units. HP ranked third, shipping 0.7 million units and posting a 15.3% annual decline. Asus, which also benefited from Japan’s GIGA 2.0 project like Lenovo, secured fourth position with an impressive 59% year-on-year growth, while Dell rounded out the top five.