China iPad sales up 80 percent on ProView deal

Following the successful trademark dispute resolution with ProView over the iPad moniker, Apple’s tablet sales in the 1.33 billion people market surged 80 percent, a new survey has it. Apple, as you know, back in July ended its legal spat with China’s bankrupt monitor maker by paying $60 million in exchange for ownership of the iPad name in China.

That deal has paved the way for the July 20 iPad launch in the country. According to an IDC research note issued Friday, iPad shipments in China nearly doubled following that deal.

An estimated 2.07 million units of the iPad were sold in China during the third quarter of this year versus the 1.15 million shipments in the previous quarter. Lenovo is a distant second with 278,000 tablet shipments. Samsung? It’s ranked as third with only 143,000 units moved…

IDC analyst Dickie Chang attributed Apple’s China growth to the ProView settlement (via Computerworld):

He attributed the shipment growth to Apple finally gaining ownership of the iPad trademark in China, which cleared the way for sales of the new product.

Apple has not yet launched the iPad mini and the fourth-generation iPad with Retina display in the country, meaning data for the fourth quarter could favor Apple even more.

IDC previously estimated that an influx of Android tablets reduced Apple’s global share of the tablet market in the third quarter to 50.4 percent, down from 59.7 percent a year ago. By contrast, Samsung lead a pack of Android rivals with a triple-digit growth in Q3 2012.

According to Apple’s fiscal 2012 fourth-quarter earnings, China attributed to a cool sixteen percent of the company’s total quarterly revenue of $36 billion, or  $5.7 billion.

The company is not so lucky when it comes to smartphones because local Chinese brands that make inexpensive handsets have pushed Apple out of China’s top 5 smartphone list, according to a Canalys research.

Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 5 in China via China Telecom, the #2 state-owned carrier, later this month or in December.

Is Apple’s iPad growth in this huge market sustainable?

Are inexpensive Android tablets going to chip away at Apple’s market share in China?