Josh OngThough Apple has regained ground from Android-based tablets in recent quarters, market research firm IDC believes the iPad's share of the market will slide in the December quarter due to gains from low-end tablets from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The firm estimated that the iPad held on to a 61.5 percent worldwide market share in the third quarter, while expecting that number to dip below the 60 percent mark next quarter.
According to IDC, HP jumped up to second place in the tablet market in the third quarter, capturing a quick 5 percent share. Its presence was short-lived, though since the PC maker cleared out inventory after deciding to cancel the device just months after its release. Samsung came in third with a 5.6 percent share of the tablet market. Barnes & Noble's Nook Color took the fourth spot with 4.5 percent and Asus came in fifth with 4 percent share.
Google's Android OS saw a dip in total market share in the third quarter, down to 32.4 percent from 33.2 percent in the second quarter, but IDC sees Kindle Fire sales driving the platform past the 40 percent mark in the December quarter.
"Amazon and Barnes & Noble are shaking up the media tablet market, and their success helps prove that there is an appetite for media tablets beyond Apple's iPad," said IDC's Tom Mainelli, research director, Mobile Connected Devices.
A number of analysts have begun revising their iPad estimates on the assumption that Apple's tablet growth will be impacted by the Kindle Fire. Canaccord Genuity recently cut its iPad forecast by one million units in light of the Fire's strong launch. Amazon revealed on Thursday that it had sold millions of the device, which has been the online retailer's best-selling product for weeks now.
Mainelli does believe, however, that Apple is still set to have its best quarter ever during the period. According to him, Apple will also make gains with its iPad in the enterprise and education markets in 2012.
IDC analyst Jennifer Song viewed Apple's head start on tablet-specific apps, future iPad versions and expanding retail presence in Asia as helping the company to maintain its "global leadership," but she predicted Android will gain on its competitor in the near future.
"An improving Android OS experience and lower competitor pricing in an environment with worldwide economic concerns should help Android to increase its market share," she said.
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Wesley Hilliard
Christine McKee
Andrew O'Hara
103 Comments
It baffles me how POS tablets and ereaders using Android or forks of Android sitting on store shelves account for "market share".
So if Microsoft threw together some piece of plastic that had Windows 7 on it and stored 100 million of them in a warehouse, but sold 100,000 of them, they'd have 50% market share?
I guess if we are calling the Kindle FIre a tablet, we might as well call the iPhone and iPod Touch tablets too. The Kindle Fire is just an oversized non-tablet Android device right? It isn't running Ice Cream Sandwich after all. It is just running the small form factor operating system.
The amount of stock manipulation as if it's ``competition'' that has yet to impact sales is getting real old.
Wall Street continues to begrudgingly despise Apple.
Nice spin on words. The Fire is essentially going to decimate the Android tablet market, which is already filled with cheap junk. The Fire is among its own kind.
The iPad market will continue to hum along. It's the gold-standard. Kindle owners will some day want to upgrade to a more usable product and will see the value that the iPad has.
I'm just aching to see the wasteland that hopefully will develop quickly to put all the other POS tablet makers out of business.
I would argue that the Fire is so modified that should not be considered Android. Amazon took the core Android code and completely re-written the UI layer and in turn removed all the Google services. Google makes ~ $0 from Fire sales
The jury is out if selling the Fire at a lose is a sustainable strategy. Amazon is likely losing $30 to $40 for every Fire sold at retail stores