Apple’s wildly popular iPad continued to dominate the highly lucrative tablet space in the second quarter of 2012 – capturing an impressive 68% of the global market.
According to Strategy Analytics (SA), Cupertino shipped a robust 17 million iPads worldwide, while shrugging off the much-hyped threat from Android. Indeed, the iPad’s global tablet share is currently hovering at its highest level since Q3 2010.
In contrast, Android remained relatively static at 29% of the global tablet in Q2 2012 – although Android tablet shipments did increase by more than half to 7.3 million units.
“Despite high expectations for companies like Amazon, Samsung, Acer and Asus, the Android community has yet to make a serious dent in Apple’s dominance of the tablet market,” SA researchers explained.
“Unspectacular hardware designs, limited uptake of cellular models and a modest number of tablet-optimized services have been among some of the main reasons for Android’s mixed performance so far.”
Unsurprisingly, Remdond eked out a paltry niche 1% global tablet share in Q2 2012, prompting Strategy Analytics to note that “the upcoming release of Windows 8 later this year cannot come quickly enough for Microsoft, so its hardware partners, like Dell, can start competing more effectively in the tablet space.”
Buoyed by both iOS and Android, the tablet market shows little sign of slowing down anytime soon, with SA estimating the tablet install base will ultimately surpass 780 million units in 2016.
“Since the introduction of the iPad, the tablet market has shown hyperbolic growth rate. Yet, many households remain tablet-less. Price erosion in the premium and high tier segments, as well as the availability of a number of smaller, lower cost tablets, like the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7, will drive further sales,” added SA researcher Matthew McKee.
