For a consumer product category that didn’t even really exist a few years ago, tablets sales are pretty darn phenomenal. The latest boost in shipments comes courtesy of the end of year holiday boom — so if you were one of the people who spent Christmas day messing around with your new iPad or Tab, you were holding one of the 52.5-million tablets sold in the last three months of 2012.

According to preliminary data ^[1] from the International Data Corporation (IDC), which tracks shipments from over 100 countries worldwide, close to 53-million tablets were sold in Q4 last year — a dramatic 75.3% increase over the estimated 29.9-million tablets that were bought in the same period in 2011. The stats also show the spike end-of-year sales bring to manufacturers: the fourth quarter sales represented a 74% increase over those of the period from July to August. Holiday sales were always going to be big for gadget manufacturers though: a record 1.2-billion apps ^[2] were downloaded in the week of Christmas 2012, as over 20-million new devices were activated and new owners hit their respective app stores.

So, what tablets were flying off the shelves? Predictably, Apple led the race: IDC estimates suggest 22.9 million iPads (Minis included) were sold in Q4, up 48.1% over the same period last year. But its dominance is slipping slowly, as competing products from Samsung and Microsoft chip off its lead: it lost 2.8% of total tablet marketshare from Q3 to Q4. With 263% year on year growth, Samsung snapped up second place, shipping almost 8-million Android and Windows 8 tablets in the last three months to hold on to 15.1% of total sales. Amazon took third place with its Kindle Fire, selling an estimated 6-million tablets to secure 11.5% of the market.

Barnes and Noble’s Nook, Asus’ offerings (including the Nexus 7) and Microsoft’s Surface made up the rest of the leading manufacturers. Barnes and Noble shipped a million Nooks in the quarter, while 3.1-million Asus tablets hit consumers’ hands and around 900 000 units of Microsoft’s much-hyped laptop/tablet hybrid were sold.