San Francisco, Jan 29 (IANS): The once-booming tablet market appears to have hit a snag, with shipments dropping 25 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2021, says a new report.

According to research firm Strategy Analytics, supply constraints held market growth to a decline of 25 per cent year-on-year (YoY).

"Last year's pre-vaccine holiday quarter was a tough one to compare against and when you add on the severe supply constraints impacting tablet vendors, it added up to a disappointing quarter, "Eric Smith, Director, Connected Computing, said in a statement.

"The maddening thing is, demand far exceeded supply at the end of 2021, holding back higher revenues for everyone," Smith added.

Microsoft cashed in on the need for mobile productivity devices with its massive Surface portfolio refresh and joined the ranks of the top global tablet vendors for the first time ever.

Meanwhile, most vendors experienced setbacks in securing components to meet persistently high demand.

Apple shipments (sell-in) fell 22 per cent YoY to 14.6 million units, with worldwide market share climbing one percentage point to 31 per cent as the vendor outpaced the market.

While remaining the top Android vendor, Samsung tablet shipments declined 28 per cent YoY to 7.3 million units; market share declined by 0.7 percentage points to 16 per cent during the same period.

Amazon performed the best among Android vendors with its deep holiday discounts; shipments declined 13 per cent to 5.8 million units.

Lenovo tablet shipments broke a nine-quarter streak of growth to fall 17 per cent to reach 4.6 million units. And for the first time, Microsoft cracked the top five global vendor list with tablet shipments totaling 1.9 million units and a marginal 1 per cent YoY growth rate.