FRAMINGHAM, MA – Worldwide media tablet shipments rose 23.9% sequentially in the third calendar, reaching 18.1 million units, according to IDC.

Unit shipments were up 264.5% from last year, but 5.8% below the research firm's original forecast of 19.2 million units.

Nevertheless, IDC sees strong fourth-quarter demand and has increased its worldwide shipment forecast for 2011 to 63.3 million units, up from a previous projection of 62.5 million units.

For the September period, Apple shipped 11.1 million units, up 1.8 million units sequentially and good for a 61.5% worldwide market share. Samsung was second, with a 5.6% share. HP entered and left the market with its TouchPad product, which shipped 903,354 units, good for a 5% share. Barnes & Noble shipped 805,458 units, and Asus rounded out the top five with a 4% share.

IDC expects Android platforms to make dramatic share gains in the current quarter, growing to 40.3% from about 34% in the third, due mostly to the entrance of Amazon's Kindle Fire.

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