According to the results of the third quarter, the iPad accounts for only 55% of global tablet shipments. Android tablets are eating away an increasing share of the market, analysts at ABI Research found out.
Despite the fact that the tablet of the “Apple” company has consistently dominated this market for 10 consecutive quarters, Apple’s share has been falling from month to month. 55% is the lowest figure since the start of iPad sales in 2010.
The release of the iPad mini speaks about Apple’s understanding of the problem and unwillingness to cede the market to competitors. But, according to Jeff Orr, one of the directors of ABI Research, the launch of the new tablet was unsuccessful. Apple’s offer is inferior to its competitors in terms of innovation. In addition, the iPad mini is more expensive, it is more difficult to get it during the most important Christmas period for any manufacturer.
Android accounted for 44% of shipments in the third quarter. And these figures, given the huge range of devices on this platform, are not surprising. Most OEMs entering the market of “tablets” (and there are more and more of them) choose the solution from Google.
By the way, there is a very interesting situation here. A year ago, most manufacturers came to the conclusion that it was useless to fight for the tablet market with Apple. The Android ecosystem at that time was noticeably losing to iOS, there was no technical budget solution comparable in performance to the iPad. As a result, it turned out that behind the “tablets” on Android there was a very small niche, which it was not possible to expand at that time by releasing just a high-quality product.
The only way out of this situation was to create your own small niche, not so much a competitive iPad, but expanding the market for relatively elite devices at that time. Kindle Fire created such a niche by identifying two trends at once for the year ahead: the spread of popularity of small tablets and the maximum reduction in the cost of tablets as a whole.
This ultimately led to a rapid increase in the share of Android tablets in the second half of this year. Plus, we must understand that by avoiding direct competition with Apple, vendors began to compete with each other, which also played a positive role in the development of the market.
And now it is unclear whether Apple will be able to really oppose them with anything, whether it will be able to find its original solution.