The iPad accounted for 68% of global tablet market share in the second calendar quarter, up from 62% three months earlier. This was likely because of the heavily discounted iPad 2 and the tepid success of many Android tablets.
According to Strategy Analytics, a research group covering tablet sales, there were approximately 25 million tablets shipped worldwide in the second quarter. Apple announced in its Q3 earnings that it sold 17 million iPads in the April-June time period, which would seem to jibe with SA’s 68% figure. Tablet shipments rose 67% year over year, which means that despite a saturating market, Apple has cemented its name as the global tablet leader.
SA’s Peter King said, “Demand for tablets among consumer, business and education users remains relatively healthy. Apple shipped a robust 17.0 million iPads worldwide and maintained its strong market leadership with 68 percent share during the second quarter of 2012. Apple continued to shrug off the much-hyped threat from Android and the iPad’s global tablet share is at its highest level since Q3 2010.”
Android currently has a 29% market share, which is unchanged from this time last year. That is a good thing for total Android tablet sales — they’re up by half to 7.3 million units — but it speaks volumes about “the others,” namely the BlackBerry PlayBook and HP TouchPad.
The Nexus 7, Google’s newly-released $200 7-inch tablet, will likely do good things for Google’s name in the tablet space, and with Amazon expected to announce both a 7- and 10-inch tablet in the coming months, things are looking good for the platform despite Apple’s dominance.
Source: BGR
