The analytical company IDC has published a report on the tablet market for the third quarter of this year. According to the results of this study, Apple is rapidly losing the tablet market.
The global tablet market grew by almost 50% compared to the third quarter of 2011: total shipments of devices amounted to 27.8 million devices, which is 9.2 million more than last year.
At the same time, Apple’s market share decreased by almost 10% to 50.4%, despite the fact that in the last quarter the company shipped 2.9 million more iPads than in the same period last year (26% growth).
IDC analyst Tom Mainelli attributes the reduction in Apple’s share to rumors about the release of the iPad Mini, which forced users to postpone the purchase for the sake of new items. In his opinion, with the release of the iPad mini and iPad 4, the position of the “Apple” company in the market may grow again.
Samsung’s share, on the contrary, is growing rapidly. Only in comparison with the third quarter of last year, its deliveries increased by an unprecedented 325%. If in Q3 2011 they were an unenviable 1.2 million, then in the last quarter of this year they grew to 5.1 million. Thus, Samsung’s share in the tablet market increased from a symbolic 6.5% to 18.4%.
Amazon also broke into the top three, which debuted on the tablet market in November 2011. Now it owns a market share of 9%, which corresponds to 2.5 million tablets shipped.
By the way, a month ago, the analytical company Pew Internet & American Life Project shared the results of its own survey of American tablet users, thanks to which it turned out that there are fewer and fewer tablet owners who have an iPad. If a year ago “pill” Steve Jobs owned 81% of tablet users, then this year the number of such decreased to 52%.
Whether Apple’s position in the iPad mini and iPad 4 market will change is still a question. As Tom Mainelli notes, the lower price tag of $329 for the iPad mini leaves a significant field for Android tablet manufacturers to maneuver.