Apple, Amazon losing steam in global tablet sales
Apple (AAPL) still has a solid lead in the global tablet market, but it’s losing steam as rival Samsung comes on strong. Meanwhile, Amazon.com (AMZN) lost ground in the holiday quarter, as its Kindle tablet shipments fell year over year. Market research firm IDC reported Wednesday that Apple had 33.8% share of the worldwide tablet market in the fourth quarter. That’s down from 38.2% in Q4 2012. It increased its iPad tablet shipments by 13.5% year over year, which is less than half the industry growth rate of 28.2%, IDC said. Apple shipped 26 million tablets in Q4. Samsung came in second place with 14.5 million tablet shipments, or 18.8% market share, in Q4. It increased shipments of its Galaxy tablets by 85.9% year over year, IDC reported. Amazon shipped 5.8 million Kindle tablets in Q4, or 7.6% market share. It was the only top five tablet maker…