Apple’s share of the fiercely competitive Chinese tablet market has almost halved in the past year, as cheaper devices using Google’s Android platform rapidly overtake the iPad.

The California-based company shipped 1.48 million iPads in China in the second quarter, accounting for 28 per cent of tablets – a sharp drop on the 49 per cent market share it recorded a year ago, according to research company IDC.

Meanwhile the number of Android-based devices shipped by Samsung rose fourfold to 571,000, almost doubling its share of the Chinese tablet market to 11 per cent. Much of Apple's competition came from small domestic rivals; tablet makers with a market share under 1 per cent accounted for 50 per cent of shipments, compared to 36 per cent last year.

The picture in China echoes statistics showing Apple is losing ground in the global tablet market, where Apple's market share dropped to 32.4 per cent in the second quarter from 60.3 per cent a year earlier, IDC said in August.

The waning growth of Apple’s iPad shipments follows a similar trend in smartphones – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013)