Whenever tablets are mentioned, you can’t help but think of the iPad. It is used in movies, TV shows, cartoons, and etc. as being the “default” device whenever tablets are brought up. However it looks like Apple’s iPad has been dethroned, thanks largely to the fact that Microsoft’s Surface sales blew up in October.
According to the folks at WinBeta, they have received a report from the 1010data Ecom Insights Panel in which the graph above was revealed. As you can see in the graph, Apple’s iPad has clearly been leading the way and has been head and shoulders above both Microsoft and Amazon’s tablets for almost the entire year.
However come October, a spike in the sales of Surface tablets saw Microsoft account for 45% of online tablet sales, and with Apple taking a massive dip to 17%. This is hardly a coincidence especially when you consider that it was in October that Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 tablet was launched.
We’re not sure why Apple’s share has taken such a huge dip and it is unclear if this is a new trend in which we will see Microsoft eventually lead the way in terms of tablet sales. However without doubt it seems that Microsoft has come a long way in terms of their Surface tablets and this data seems to prove just that. Whether the Redmond company will be able to maintain their lead remains to be seen, but so far things are looking up.