mobile mediamarketing daily reporting:
As Apple brings its next-generation iPad to market this Friday, it is
being met by worldwide consumer and business enthusiasm for the
platform that just keeps outpacing estimates. IDC says that
worldwide device shipments in the category totaled 28.2 million in the
last quarter of 2011, up 56.1% from the previous quarter and
representing a massive increase of 155% from Q4 2010. The momentum
is impressive, IDC says, and it is raising its 2012 targets appreciably,
from an earlier forecast of 87.7 million units to 106.1 million.
Apple
maintained its overwhelming dominance of the
market, 54.7% off of 15.4 million units in Q4. Nevertheless, Amazon
shipped an estimated 4.7 million Kindle Fires to reach a 16.8% market
share and shave Apple’s slice down from 61.5% in the
previous quarter. Amazon’s entry into the market, although limited to
the U.S. in late 2011, seemed to raise the profile of the tablet
category around the world. “Products across the
pricing spectrum sold well, including everything from Apple’s
premium-priced iPads to Pandigital’s line of Android-based, entry level
tablets [starting at $120],” says Tom Mainelli,
Research Director, Mobile Connected Devices, IDC.
In fact,
despite negative hype surrounding other Android tablets, Samsung
actually increased its share of shipped tablets from 5.5% to 5.8% in
Q4. Barnes & Noble also introduced the Nook Tablet, which helped the
bookseller sell more tablet units but still lost market share, from
2.9% to 2.5%.
Apple’s diminished market share
is to the benefit of the only major rival, Android. Mainelli sees a
scenario in tablets echoing somewhat the evolution of smartphones. Apple
will remain the leading single vendor of tablet hardware
for the foreseeable future. Still, Amazon’s Kindle Fire success
represents the leading edge of an ongoing trend. “The sheer number of
vendors shipping low-priced Android-based tablets
means that Google’s OS will overtake Apple’s in terms of worldwide share
by 2015,” says Mainelli. iOS-based tablets will continue to lead
revenue in the category at least through
2016, however.
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