Android Tablets Slowly Eating iPad Marketshare

[dgstorm]

A new marketing study was performed by ABI Research, which shows that the Apple iPad is still the dominating tablet platform. While this is likely not surprising to most of us, what is interesting about this study is that it shows just how much and how quickly Android has eroded the tablet market away from under Apple's tablet. According to the marketing research, the iPad made up 55 percent of tablet shipments in the third quarter, but Android claimed a 44 percent share, which is a 14 percent decline for the iPad compared to the previous quarter. In fact, ABI's market analyst, Jeff Orr, came to the conclusion that this Christmas is likely the last holiday season we will see iPad in the dominant position. More than likely by the end of 2013 Android tablets will out-number iPads in market penetration. Here's a quote with a few more tidbits,

“As the OS of choice for the majority of device OEMs [original equipment manufacturers], we expect the Android ecosystem to continue growing in numbers — new manufacturers, better device choices for reaching more markets, and more developers finding value from apps and content.”

Expectations are that the iPad mini will not do much to help Apple retain market share. Orr said,

“With the introduction of a smaller, lower-cost iPad Mini, Apple has acknowledged Android’s beachhead of 7-inch-class tablets, though at the same time, it has failed to deliver a knock-out punch through innovation, pricing, and availability during the most critical selling period of the year.”

A lot of iPad sales are expected over the holiday season, but more and more people are choosing Android tablets and this looks like it will be the last Christmas that the iPad dominates the tablet market.

Hmmm... I think most of our members could have told them this same thing without a time-consuming market analysis. We could see the writing on the wall months ago, just from watching things progress in the news.

Source: AndroidAuthority