Buoyed by seasonality, global tablet shipments reached 44.89 million units in the third quarter of 2018, up 21.1% on quarter and 6.1% on year, Digitimes Research has estimated. Among all shipments, branded products grew 29.9% on quarter, while white-box products remained flat as compared to a quarter earlier.

In terms of shipments by size, 10-inch products have gradually become mainstream of the industry, as 7.x-inch devices still maintained a ratio of 15% in the third quarter. The ratio of 10.x-inch devices is expected to surge to over 40% in the first quarter of 2019, although their ratios are likely to be below 30% in the third and fourth quarters of 2018 on the robust shipments of 7- and 8-inch products from Amazon.

While Apple's iPad (2018) devices, which support Apple Pencil, did make inroad into in the secondary and primary education markets in early 2018, the release of Chromebook Tab packed with Wacom EMR touch-enabled stylus at a later stage has helped Chrome OS make ground in the tablet market.

While currently Acer is the sole vendor that has launched Chromebook Tab products, the advantage which Chromebook has in the higher education sector may enable Google to compete effectively with Apple in the secondary and primary education markets later.

Despite it being the peak season, the fourth quarter will see global tablet shipments fall 2.3% sequentially, affected by a significant decline in shipments expected for white-box products.

But shipments from the top-five brands are expected to meet market expectations in the fourth quarter, each seeing shipments expand over 15% sequentially, according to Digitimes Research.