Samsung has been the reigning king of smartphone sales for a while now, but if there’s one area where it’s failed to topple Apple, it’s in the tablet market.  Apple’s iPad has dominated the tablet scene for years, but that may all change by the time we say goodbye to 2014.  A recent report from ZDNet Korea pegs Samsung with rising tablet sales in Q1 2014, with the company expecting to overtake Apple in terms of global market share by the end of the year. 

Just how good was the first quarter of the year for Samsung?  The Korean company shipped a grand total of 14 million tablets, jumping up 200,000 units from the previous quarter.  That puts Samsung at 23% global market share for the quarter, closing in on Apple’s 30%.  There’s still quite the trek ahead before Samsung catches up, but the company has every intention of pulling ahead of Apple by the end of the year.  If sales keep rising, it’s possible that those threats could become a reality. 

Speaking to ZDNet Korea, an unnamed Samsung official credited the rise in shipments to the company’s sales plan that covers both emerging and established markets. “ We have implemented a comprehensive sales plan for tablets, from emerging countries to developed ones,” the official said.  That sales plan seems to be working, as Samsung doubled 2012’s number of tablet shipments last year, reporting 40 million shipments.  That’s nothing to scoff at, but it’s small beans compared to the 100 million tablets the company is planning on shipping this year. 

Still, as they say: talk is cheap.  Samsung certainly has a fight ahead of it if it wants to overtake Apple, which had record-breaking iPad sales in Q4 2013.  Apple’s iPad is the monster of the tablet scene, and it’s going to take very healthy sales to bump it into second place.  If there’s one company that can do it, though, it’s probably Samsung.  What do you think?  Can Samsung move into first place in global tablet market share by the end of the year, or will we still see Apple sitting on top when we chime in 2015?  Head to the comments section and let us know!