Worldwide tablet shipments are estimated to reach 33.8 million units in the first quarter of 2013, down 21.8% sequentially, but up 75.8% on year, according to Digitimes Research Senior Analyst James Wang.

Apple’s iPad shipments will see almost 5% sequential growth to reach 22 million units in the first quarter, accounting for 65.1% of the total volume as changes in iPad series’ life-cycle (launch schedule) in 2012 will help the iPad devices to suffer less impact from seasonal factors, reports DigiTimes (www.digitimes.com).

However, seasonality will significantly impact demand for non-iPad tablets, causing their combined shipments to drop 46.9% sequentially to 11.8 million units with a market share of only 34.9%, the research group says.