New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS): Apple shipped 57.6 million iPads in 2020, garnering top spot with 30.6 percent tablet market share globally, according to a new report.

Apple had a great holiday quarter (October-December period) with its tablets shipments up 37 percent year-on-year, fulfilling consumer, commercial and education demand, according to a report by Strategy Analytics.

Samsung shipped 31.2 million tablets in 2020, securing the second spot with a 16.6 percent market share was Amazon was third, as the tablet market posted an 18 percent annual increase in 2020, the strongest growth in seven years.

"The new normal will start to emerge in 2021 as pandemic restrictions slowly fade away, but we fully expect work-from-home and learn-from-home will have won over fans among workers, students, companies, and educational institutions alike," said Eric Smith, Director, Connected Computing.

"How tablet vendors choose to address this urgent need for mobile productivity will depend on their unique set of strengths and weaknesses, but it is clear that they must fight even harder for revenue in this competitive environment," he added.

Especially for users working within a tight budget, tablets are proving to be credible mobile computing alternatives to notebooks, as mobile computing demand showed double-digit year-on-year growth in 2020.

The global tablet market grew 28 percent (year-on-year) in Q4 2020 amid strong holiday demand for entertainment devices and continued work/school-from-home activity.

"Several major Android vendors did as well or even better on an annual growth basis as Android tablets have a cost advantage over iPad," said Chirag Upadhyay, Industry Analyst.

Amazon has great value at low cost and typically does very well during the holidays.

"Samsung and Lenovo had a very strong quarter of performance as their portfolios are wide-ranging, up-to-date, and innovative for entertainment and productivity needs," Upadhyay added.