I dont understand - are they really gunning for iPad/iPad Pro with these tablets from Huawei/Honor/Samsung or is it only interpretation of news outlets?
Because, if you want to gun for iPads market share you should:
1)Provide long term major OS updates as well as minor patches and security patches, thats what Apple is doing for at least 4-7 years depending on device and severity of issue.
2)Make them at competitive prices. I mean, base iPad is far more desirable choice when it comes to build quality vs price vs performance vs app ecosystem vs long term support, NOTHING in Androids world can beat that, period. The only Android tablet Id touch today is S5e due to its budget friendly price and AMOLED display. Other tabelts reach 500-800 euro prices in Europe which is outrageous imho.
3)Make them more powerfull so developers would be attracted at making more full fledged apps for pro's or at least pro'sumers so to speak, because everything with A12 and up just dominates in performance combined with iOS optimizations that Apple does in house, nothing like that happening at Android, at least not in a long term.
If anything of what I said makes sense, my 2 cents.
TL:DR
Buy iPad Air 3 and be happy camper for years to come with decent performance, good build quality, decent battery life and big high quality app selection and years of major OS updates and bug fixes, security patches, none of Android players have anything similar to offer even in high end premium market phones, let alone tablets, youll be left alone after 3 years at best with your device and no major OS support.