Android grabs a bigger chunk of the tablet market

iPad share shrinks as Android looks on

Strategy Analytics is reporting that tablet market leader, once seemingly omnipotent Apple, has again lost share to Android in the latest quarter, consecutive quarters indicating that it's now a trend. After a slow start in the tablet space, Android has picked up some real momentum, fueled by a variety of consumer targeted devices from many manufacturers offering the buyer something previously lacking, choice.

While Android's tablet share sat at 29% at the close of 2010, that number has increased to 39% at the end of 2011. In contrast, Apple's share has fallen from 68% to 58% over the same period and you don't need to be a mathematician to work out where the iPad's market went.

Apple shipped 15.4 million iPads worldwide in Q4, a record for the company, but not enough apparently to keep Android at bay. The little green robot's 10.5 million units reflects the same relative performance as its competitor, confirming that it too had a record quarter.

While Apple's CEO “shrugged off” the looming threat from entry-level Android tablets, he tellingly avoided mention of the iPad's loss of market share. Something ate into the iPad sales in 2011, and if it wasn't the low priced models doing the damage, then it was the more expensive units, something that should be setting off alarm bells in Cupertino. Accompanied by the murmur of battalions of lawyers girding their legal loins in anticipation of mass patent skirmishes with Android-using tablet manufacturers, before the “decisive battle” with Google/Android when those tactics fail.

The popularity of the Android OS with tablet manufacturers, especially with the Ice Cream Sandwich version, has effectively muted such memes as claims of “fragmentation” of the operating system, and has hushed criticism of Android's tablet/smartphone user-interface.

Despite the undeniable popularity of the media tablet with its 300% increase year on year, and the realisation by consumers that they don't need a notebook computer after all, the PC market is still 352 million units versus the tablet at 66.9 million. Even with this sea change in progress, the PC market grew by 2 million units from the same time in 2010. There's life in the old dog yet, perhaps.

Source: Strategy Analytics