While smartphone shipments for the past quarter are reported to have risen by over 38% year-on-year, the growth of tablet sales hasn’t been any less dramatic.

Figures from the International Data Corporation (IDC) show tablet shipments up 36.7% year-on-year (and 7% from the previous quarter) to 47.6 million units.

There were no iPad products launched in the second or third quarter of 2013 - Apple appears to have chosen Q4 for its tablet launches - which has resulted in year-on-year growth dropping to less than 1%. However, it still led the tablet market for Q3 with almost 30% of all tablet shipments.

In second place was Samsung, shipping around 9.7 million units and gaining 20.4% of the worldwide market. Asus, which makes the Google Nexus 7 , was in third place with 3.5 million units and 7.4% market share. Fourth place went to Lenovo with shipments of 2.3 million units and a 4.8% share, followed by Acer with 1.2 million units shipped and a 2.5% share.

Tom Mainelli, Research Director for Tablets at IDC, said “White box tablet shipments continue to constitute a fairly large percentage of the Android devices shipped into the market. These low cost Android-based products make tablets available to a wider market of consumers, which is good. However, many use cheap parts and non Google-approved versions of Android that can result in an unsatisfactory customer experience, limited usage, and very little engagement with the ecosystem. Android's growth in tablets has been stunning to watch, but shipments alone won't guarantee long-term success. For that you need a sustainable hardware business model, a healthy ecosystem for developers, and happy end users.”

Top five tablet vendors, Q3 2013. (Unit shipments and market share in millions)