Apple Tops List for Global Tablet Shipments during Third Quarter of 2011
Posted on 21. Oct, 2011 by TabletMan in Tablets
There have been a ton of tablets released in 2011, but only a few have done well in sales.
The number crunchers at Strategy Analytics have released their Q3 2011 global tablet shipment estimates broken down by operating system. According to the research company tablet shipments grew in the third quarter by 280% globally to 16.7 million units from 4.4 million in Q3 2010, and Apple accounted for the lion’s share of the total number of tablets shipped.
Apple’s iOS, which powers the companies highly successful iPad tablets, represented 66.6% of global tablet shipments with a total of 11.1 million tablets shipped during Q3 of 2011, according to Strategy Analytics. The closest competitor for Apple was Google’s Android OS which represented 26.9% or 4.5 million of the total tablets shipped in the third quarter of 2011. Other platforms like Microsoft’s Windows, RIM’s QNX, and HP/Palm webOS accounted for a total of 1.1% of tablets shipped for the quarter in question.
It’s been clear as day for months now that Apple’s only competition for market share is Android given the way Google offers the operating systems to any OEM in need of a touch-based operating system. Going forward I expect to see Android rise in tablet shipments at an extremely quick pace next year, as the price for a good Android tablet comes down to sub-$300 levels.
A lot of people, including industry players like Michael Dell, feel that Microsoft’s Windows 8 OS will rise past Android in the tablet market. I’m very skeptical of that prediction. I’m skeptical because at this juncture we don’t really have a clear picture of what a Windows 8 tablet will be able to do, how well a Windows 8 tablet (especially with ARM) will be able to perform, and most importantly how much a Windows 8 tablet will cost.
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One Response to “Apple Tops List for Global Tablet Shipments during Third Quarter of 2011”
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babyfacemagee
22. Oct, 2011
Good points. I think you’re right about Windows not catching Android in the tablet market. By this time next year Android will already be at 40% market share of tablets and while Windows will eventually carve out a niche for themselves, Android will take the lead in 2013 with Apple falling to 2nd and Windows a distant third.