While Apple's iPad continues to account for a large proportion of the tablet market, Google's Android platform is increasingly decreasing the former's market share.
Various models of the iPad gave Apple a 55 percent market share of tablet shipments during the third quarter. According to data stemming from ABI Research, that figure represents a 14 percent decline from the second quarter, as well as being its lowest level since the iPad's inception in 2010.
The firm said predominant reasons of the lost market share was due to Samsung, Amazon and Asus, who are a few of the technology firms who have adopted Google's mobile operating system Android, subsequently leading to accounting for 44 percent of tablets shipped. ABI Research expects the platform's market share to experience a continuous increase.
"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," ABI Research's Jeff Orr said in a statement.
The iPad Mini, released during the third quarter, is not expected to help Apple obtain market share from Google, ABI predicted.
"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," Orr explained.
As for Android's market share on smartphones, it's an entirely different outlook when compared to its fellow ecosystem. Google's platform accounted for for 72.4 percent of all smartphones sold during the third quarter, while iOS followed in a distant second place with a 13.9 percent share.
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Zak Islam is a freelance writer focusing on security, networking, and general computing. His work also appears at Digital Trends and Tom's Guide.
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esrever I hope by this time next year, apply will no longer be relevant enough to have so much press.Reply -
krameynb This must mean more lawsuits are on the way. If you can't dominate, litigate! Forget innovate. The new apple way...Reply -
frozendarkness You guys are right, that must be why samsung is suing companies around the world. besides, i love android's OMG My smartphone's bigger innovation, but apple coming out wiht a 7.9" tablet is innovation dying.Reply -
assasin32 Lets be blunt Apple sells higher priced items, of course their not going to dominate the market when a competition finally shows up at the low end of the market. Especially when you can get good quality products there too.Reply
I've had a few family members pick up cheap capacitive touch screen tablets $50-80 on black friday and after it. Do they work well, kind've they get the job done. They wanted it for angry birds, internet, netflex, all of which it does well. Will a high end tablet perform better, yes. But not $300+ worth of performance increase for them which is what one of their Ipads will set them back.
What Apple probably doesn't see if that these cheap Android users will get used to Android and will most likely come back to Android again when they buy a higher end tablet instead of going with something different like an iPad in order to avoid learning a new OS.
With that in mind I think it was a dumb move to make a iPad mini at $330 price point they should have shot for $200 to dominate the high quality section of the lower end tablets which is filled with Kindle Fire, Nooks, Nexus, etc. Because at their current price point you can get a full size tablet quite easily in comparison to a gimped iPad mini. -
What people fail to realize that choice is always good for the end user. If Apple goes away then innovation will definitely suffer.Reply
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nforce4max I honestly prefer Android Tablets over the iPad for obvious reasons such as removable storage and the fact that they are super cheap. They are now even turning up in yard sales lol.Reply -
tomfreak About time for android tablet taking the share of ipad since the newer ones doesnt suck like android tablet 2 yrs b4 now.Reply -
baconeater esreverI hope by this time next year, apply will no longer be relevant enough to have so much press.Reply
I suppose you mean "apple" by "apply", but why? do you know how many people apple employ? What good would it serve to have apple disappear? just so your senseless apple hate can result in something?
Say what you want about apple, but none of the phone and tablet designs would be where they are without apple coming up with it first. I use a SGSIII and a Asus transformer prime, but I still give credit where it's due.