Android's tablet share pales in comparison to the 67 percent table share enjoyed by Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad, which the company said earlier this week sold 11.1 million units, and over 32 million units since its launch in April 2010.
The Android count is simply the number that shipped. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) acquired a 2 percent global tablet share, while Research in Motion's (NASDAQ:RIMM) BlackBerry PlayBook grabbed a lowly 1 percent of the market.
Apple's iPhone has a 20 percent worldwide share, and as much as 28 percent in the U.S. Yet the same Android OEMs who are selling tens of millions of Android handsets have thus far struggled to duplicate that success in tablets.
Why the increase? The analyst added that the tablet sector will be watching the launch of Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) Kindle Fire, a 7-inch Android tablet the e-commerce giant will begin selling Nov. 15 for $199. "Amazon's strategy of minimizing its hardware price is set to ignite the entry-level tablet segment and attract more mass-market consumers," Mawston added.
Despite a 20 percent increase in shipped units during the past three months, the iPad's share of the global tablet market slipped mightily in the face of growing competition from Android slates.
That news, though, was offset Friday by a report from Strategy Analytics that the iPad's share of the global tablet market—previously a domineering 96 percent—had fallen to 67 percent. Meanwhile, Android tabs had grown their market share to 27 percent.
From quarter one to quarter two, shipments climbed 96.4 percent. Credit: DeviantArt's Ayo73One reason for slowing shipments is that Apple has picked all the low hanging fruit in the tablet market, he asserted. "Amazon's strategy of minimizing its hardware price is set to ignite the entry-level tablet segment and attract more mass-market consumers," Strategy Analytics Director Neil Mawston said in a statement.
So if Apple wants to compete in that mainstream market, Mainelli maintained, it's going to need to augment its media tablet lineup with lower-priced products. "Lower-priced iPads would increase Apple's total available market, and would give competitors already reeling from Amazon's $199 product announcement yet another reason to lose sleep at night," he added
Apple Inc.'s iPad, whose share of the tablet market once stood at a mighty 96 percent, has fallen to 67 percent amid growing challenges from other tablets such as those running Google's Android, a research and consulting firm said.
Strategy Analytics said the iPad's share of the global tablet market fell to 67 percent while Android tablets' share grew to 27 percent, PC World reported.
It noted that while iPad shipments increased 164 percent during the first three months of 2011 and shipments climbed 96.4 percent in the second quarter, there was only a 20-percent increase from the second to the third quarter.
Tom Mainelli, an analyst for IDC, said the figures show the iPad "is experiencing slowing growth."
Android tablets are quickly eating into Apple’s iPad leading market share with 26.9 percent of shipped tablets in the third quarter running Google’s mobile operating system. A Strategy Analytics report published on Friday comes to that conclusion, suggesting that 4.5 million Android tablets shipped last quarter use Android, while 11.1 million are powered by Apple’s iOS platform.
First is the definition of market share with respect to tablets sold vs tablets shipped. Apple’s figures are tablets sold, which don’t include tablets sitting on store shelves, tablets en route to stores or tablets sitting in a warehouse. By comparison, Android’s figures are the shipped number of tablets, so any devices sitting on a store shelf actually count, and they shouldn’t for market share purposes.
Next is the question of “what is an Android tablet?” The first Android tablets, going as far back to the middle of 2010, ran on Android 2.x, or Google’s smartphone platform. It wasn’t until February of 2011 that the first Android 3.0, or Honeycomb, tablet arrived. All sub-versions of Android are included. Yes, the B&N Nook Color tablet is included in the tablet figures.”
Google’s dashboard currently shows 1.8 percent of devices hitting the Market run Android 3.0 or better. That works out to 3.42 million Android Honeycomb tablets.
The figure isn’t that far off from the 4.5 million shipped Android tablets that Strategy Analytics reports for the last quarter. Assuming that Android tablet sales are dramatically rising, I’m not sure I understand why. Aside from some price drops, I don’t see why consumers would suddenly be purchasing Android tablets. I saw iPads, smartphones and laptops, but aside from my own 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab, not one single Android tablet.
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