An analyst looking at the Chinese tablet market for the second quarter of the year told a publication that Apple’s iPad share has dropped significantly compared to the same period last year.

Dickie Chang from IDC told Bloomberg that Apple accounted for 28% of tablet shipments in Q2 2013, compared to 49% in Q2 2012. Despite the drop in market share, the iPad was still the best sold tablet in the region.

In second place came Samsung with 11% of the market, followed by Lenovo with 8%. The real winners though – but only when combined – were local tablet makers that have been producing Android-based affordable devices.

In total, Apple sold 1.48 million iPads in the region during the period (a 28% percent increase compared to Q2 2012), with Samsung and Lenovo selling 571,000 and 413,000 units, respectively (or four and two times more than last year, respectively).

Unknown companies – at least to us: Ramos, Teclast, Onda, Algo and others – each account for around 1% or even less of the Chinese tablet maker, which doesn’t sound very encouraging. But combined, these companies apparently shipped 50% of the tablets sold in Q2 2013. Comparatively, in Q2 2012, the combined share was at 36%.

We’ll note that in that plethora of companies that make these affordable devices, some well-known brands are also included, like Acer, Asus, Huawei and ZTE, with market shares around 1%. Microsoft is also said to be part of the top 10 tablet makers in China with a similar 1% share.

Chang did not mention anything about tablet-related profits, which would most likely see Apple as the winner considering its iPad pricing scheme.

The analyst identified two reasons for the sharp market share “plunge” for Apple, including lower prices for local Android tablets and Apple’s lack of new products this year. The current iPad models have been announced in late 2012, with 2013 models yet to be unveiled.

This isn’t the first report from analysts that says Apple is losing market share to Android in the tablet business, with a similar trend observed overall, not only China. However, it looks like the drop is more sever in the world’s largest mobile market for the iPad maker – of course, assuming that analyst get their numbers right.