Despite the growth of iPad sales, Apple Inc. suffered a double-digit market share percentage loss, and Samsung capitalized on the opportunity.

According to Gartner, Inc., an information technology research and advisory company, Apple tablets maintained a "strong" fourth quarter in 2013, and it gave the company the top position in the worldwide tablet market for the year.

"Apple's tablets remain strong in the higher end of the market and, Apple's approach will continue to force vendors to compete with full ecosystem offerings, even in the smaller-screen market as the iPad mini sees a greater share," said Gartner's Research Director Roberta Cozza.

In 2012, according to Gartner, Apple sold 61.5 million tablets worldwide, which represented 52.8 percent of the market share. For 2013, however, Apple's market share fell by 16.8 percentage points. As a result, the iPad accounted for 36 percent of the market share for 2013 despite selling 70.4 million tablets. Although Apple's market share slipped, it held the No.1 position for the year.

Samsung saw an impressive 2013 with an increase in both market share and tablets sold. Samsung sold 37.4 million tablets worldwide during 2013, which is an increase from 8.6 million units sold in 2012. Samsung's 2013 market share hit 19.1 percent, which is 11.7 percent higher from the 7.4 percent it had garnered for 2012.

Samsung was noted to have a 336 percent increase during 2013, which is the highest growth of the worldwide tablet vendors. Samsung's increase was attributed to strong marketing and promotions and the expansion of the Galaxy tablet.

With Apple's market share loss, rival tablet vendors saw an increase with their market shares as well. ASUS sold more tablets during 2013 for a third place finish, toppling Amazon in the process. ASUS finished 2013 with a 5.6 percent market share with 11 million tablets sold, an increase from the 5.4 percent market share 6.3 million units during 2012.

Amazon fell to fourth place due to a market share loss but saw an increase in tablet sales. Amazon sold 9.4 million tablets, which is an increase from 7.7 million tablets in 2012. Despite the sales increase, Amazon's market share tripped from 6.6 percent for 2012 to 4.8 percent in 2013.

Lenovo saw its sales increase in 2013 as 6.5 million tablets were sold from the 2.2 million in 2012. Its market share ticked up from 1.9 percent to 3.3 percent.

"Lenovo's success is a combination of launching innovative new tablet models during the second half of 2013 and the sales of its Yoga model and Windows tablets doing particularly well," said Gartner's Principal Research Analyst Isabelle Durand. "Moreover, Lenovo's strong R&D capabilities and its ability to react quickly to tablet market dynamics have helped it introduce innovative and a range of attractive products to the market. However, establishing a strong brand with consumers outside China, which is especially important in the tablet market, remains a key challenge."

Overall, Garner stated 195,435,004 million tablets were sold during 2013, an increase from 116,348,317 units during 2012.

__

For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO