IpadMarketDominance
Latest
Apple: The undisputed leader in the tablet market
This might not be a surprise to anyone. Research firm IDC reports that the iPad represented nearly 90 percent of media tablets shipped in the third quarter of 2010. This is a fairly big deal because the tablet market itself picked up by a whopping 45 percent, going from 3.3 million tablets shipped in the second quarter to 4.8 million tablets shipped in the third quarter. With an increase of 1.5 million units being shipped in just three months, that's a sizeable increase in a growing market. IDC restricts its study to tablets with screens larger than 5 inches but smaller than 14 inches. It also restricts the idea of "media tablets" to devices that run a "lightweight" operating system like iOS or Android. That's a fairly tight definition of media tablet, but it probably includes most devices your average consumer would consider purchasing. With all of the new iPad toys we saw previewed at CES, it's fairly likely that the iPad will continue to be strong through 2011. It will be interesting to see how Apple measures up against all the tablet-come-lately competitors, and whether the iPad's overwhelming dominance will continue. [Via The Mac Observer]
iPad nabs 95.5 percent of tablet market
It should come as a surprise to no ones that the Apple iPad completely dominates the tablet computer market right. After nearly a decade of availability, Windows-based tablets have never gained much traction except for a some vertical markets like healthcare. Meanwhile, Android-based tablets have gotten a lot of press in recent months but only a handful cheap, underpowered, off-brand units have actually made it to market. As a result, the iPad currently accounts for 95.5 percent of tablet sales, according to data from Strategy Analytics. The first really serious challenger from the Android camp is the new Samsung Galaxy Tab, which is just going on sale in Europe now and coming to North America in the next couple of weeks. The Samsung will be followed by Android, WebOS and Blackberry entries in the coming months. By the end of the first quarter of 2011 we should have a better idea if anyone can really challenge Apple in this segment.
