As competition from Amazon’s Kindle Fire, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab line, Google’s new Nexus 7 and a variety of other tablets try to topple them, Apple continues its tablet domination with a commanding 68 percent market share.

Second quarter data from IDC reveals Apple shipped 17 million iPads during Q2, up from 11.8 million units in the first quarter, no doubt as a result of the release of the new iPad.

Apple’s closest tablet competitor, Samsung, managed only 2.4 million units shipped over the same period. The bright side? for Samsung is that the numbers are exponentially larger than the same quarter last year, with growth of 117.6 percent.

IDC’s Tom Mainelli, research director Mobile Connected Devices:

“Apple built upon its strong March iPad launch and ended the quarter with its best-ever shipment total for the iPad, outrunning even the impressive shipment record it set in the fourth quarter of last year.”

“The vast majority of consumers continue to favor the iPad over competitors, and Apple is seeing increasingly strong interest in the device from vertical markets–especially education. While iPad shipment totals are beginning to slow a bit in mature markets where the device saw early traction, growth in other regions is clearly more than making up the difference.”

As for worldwide tablet sales, 25 million tablets for all brands are estimated to have been sold during Q2 of 2012, up from 18.7 million in the first quarter of 2012 and growing at 66.2 perent over the 15 million units shifted in the second quarter of 2011.

 

[IDC]

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