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Report: Android steals 20% of tablet market share from iPad

Summary: Although Apple is the undeniable leader in tablet production still, a new survey shows that Android has at least one fifth of the market now.

Rachel King

By for Between the Lines |

Another study pins Apple on top of the worldwide tablet market share leader board, but Google's Android has gained considerable ground.

Technology market intelligence firm ABI Research reports that Android-based tablets have grown to nab 20 percent of the market away from the iPad in the last year.

ABI points out that not a "single vendor using Android (or any other OS) has been able to mount a significant challenge against" the iPad. This fits in accordingly with a study from iSuppli published last week, which argued that tablet manufacturers have not been able to compete with the iPad's design.

But more so than the external design, ABI attributes the lack of competition up until now to "fragmentation within operating system software."

ABI Research's mobile devices group director Jeff Orr the potential of open software platform development in a statement:

De-featured, low-cost media tablets are being introduced by more than fifty vendors in 2011. This will certainly help bolster year-over-year growth for the category, but it also creates a negative perception in the minds of the mass consumer audience about the readiness of media tablets to be fully functional within the next several years. Good user experiences and product response are needed to propel this market beyond the ‘early adopter’ stage.

Earlier this week, DigiTimes reported that non-Apple tablet sales are expected to surge by 134 percent in 2012 thanks to new and advanced chips from a handful of ARM suppliers such as NVIDIA, Texas Instruments and Qualcomm. Android and Apple shipments are expected to level out more evenly as Android-based tablet PCs are expected to increase to 44-45 million units and iPad shipments are predicted to hover around 54-55 million units in 2012.

[via Boy Genius Report]

Related:

Topics: Laptops, Android, Google, Hardware, iPad, Mobility, Tablets

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91 comments
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  • That's right. Android 'steals'.

    And Samsung 'stole' (Trade Dress) the rounded corners design on rectangular objects from Apple too.

    Outrageous!
    Dietrich T. Schmitz * Your Linux Advocate!
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Report: Android steals 20% of tablet market share from iPad

      @Dietrich T. Schmitz * Your Linux Advocate!
      Yeah you wish, funny that you would bash a linux tablet for something like Apple that uses a freakin kids drawing to block a product they know is threatening their dominance. Plain and simple they see the writing on the wall and real pathetic to use something like that to block a competitor.
      OhTheHumanity
      Reply Vote

      • Why is it pathetic?

        @OhTheHumanity
        If you owned a company and you were worried that a competitor might prevent you from maximizing your profits, wouldn't you do whatever it took to stop that from happening?

        Of course you would. And if you wouldn't, you would be out of business very quickly.
        toddybottom
        Reply Vote

      • I was being facetious. Dude wake up and smell the moca java

        @OhTheHumanity

        Read here about Trade Dress:
        h-t-t-p-s://plus.google.com/101839830409692150605/posts/4UybGGpwWju

        I am on your side.
        Dietrich T. Schmitz * Your Linux Advocate!
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Report: Android steals 20% of tablet market share from iPad

        @OhTheHumanity
        If Axis of Evil don't succeed in the courtrooms they are going to start sending snipers around the country to shoot people who use Android devices ...
        AdnanPirota
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Report: Android steals 20% of tablet market share from iPad

        @OhTheHumanity
        You two should get together for a date
        global.philosopher
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Report: Android steals 20% of tablet market share from iPad

        @toddybottom Having been minority owner of a company for eight years, my answer, at least, is no, I wouldn't do WHATEVER it took. Some things are illegal, and others are unethical. Still more things grant short term gain at the expense of long-term pain. Others result in PR backlashes or disasters.
        jgm@...
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Report: Android steals 20% of tablet market share from iPad

        @OhTheHumanity - and iOS came from open source as well.

        Pot, kettle...

        And he has a point. "Steal" is a bit of a harsh word. You know, how dare competition steal Apple's profit since only Apple's executives deserve to make money (they even offshore jobs to a company where workers who make $2/hr are known for trying to kill themselves...)
        HypnoToad72
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Report: Android steals 20% of tablet market share from iPad

        @toddybottom - which is why working together for a common good (e.g. Candidate Obama) is far better than foisting so-called competition ("President" Obama).

        Funny how things change, and did we get change... just not the type people were thinking of at the time...

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBSaXeshBF4
        http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3096434/vp/40575006#40575006
        HypnoToad72
        Reply Vote

    • Apple today = IBM 1982

      Google/Samsung = Compaq/Gateway 1982
      Consumers will win in the end with "reasonable" prices and all companies will end up with black eyes!
      kd5auq
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Report: Android steals 20% of tablet market share from iPad

      @Dietrich T. Schmitz * Your Linux Advocate! If it was just that I believe apple really wouldn't have had too much of a case. However if you look at the total body of what was done, it is pretty obvious they attempted to imitate as much as possible. It kind of reminds me of the movie coming to America. McDonalds vs McDowels

      "Look... me and the McDonald's people got this little misunderstanding. See, they're McDonald's... I'm McDowell's. They got the Golden Arches, mine is the Golden Arcs. They got the Big Mac, I got the Big Mick. We both got two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions, but their buns have sesame seeds. My buns have no seeds. "
      Johnpford
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Report: Android steals 20% of tablet market share from iPad

        @Johnpford Different OSes, processors, features, names... yep, they sought to imitate as much as possible. Why, it's almost impossible to tell a "Samsung Galaxy Pad" running Android from an "iPad" running iOS in the store! Sheesh.
        jgm@...
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Report: Android steals 20% of tablet market share from iPad

        @Johnpford

        Coming to America! Do I win a new pony????

        :-)
        omdguy
        Reply Vote

      • Yeah heard it all before....

        @jgm@... .. Back when Apple introduced the Bondi Blue iMac it was a huge HIT everyone started adding color plastic to their devices like vacum cleaners and such. PC OEM's added colored plastic to their boxes but hey no one got sued. Then a Korean outfit made a duplicate visually of the iMac and slapped Windows on it. Apple sued and WON. Now the Korean outfit made the exact same arguments you and others have made. It's running Windows! It's logo is different from Apple's! Heck eve back then the processors were different. The thing about these cases is it does not have to be an exact copy to violate it just has to be way to close:)<br><br>Pagan jim
        James Quinn
        Reply Vote

    • RE: Report: Android steals 20% of tablet market share from iPad

      @Dietrich T. Schmitz * Your Linux Fanboy!
      I find it funny that you are even commenting on this since just this morning I read a quote of your's from last year about how tablets would be nothing more than a small niche product :-)
      non-biased
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Report: Android steals 20% of tablet market share from iPad

      @Dietrich T. Schmitz * Your Linux Advocate!

      You should check stuff you post, like "Designers use it for all manor of objects"

      manor or manner??
      sip01
      Reply Vote

  • Units shipped don't equal sales.

    wonder how many dudpads sitting in the warehouses?
    systemx
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Report: Android steals 20% of tablet market share from iPad

      @systemx Tell that to Apple, they claim 3 to 5 weeks worth sitting in the warehouse and then admitted they sold 3.5 Million in 3 weeks so they could have 3.5 to 5 Million of those iPads sitting in the channels and claiming 9.25 Million sold (when really they mean shipped).
      slickjim
      Reply Vote

      • By &quot;could&quot; do you mean you are just

        @Peter Perry .. speculating? Just saying you don't actually know anything about this subject do you?

        Pagan jim
        James Quinn
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Report: Android steals 20% of tablet market share from iPad

        Same way you're speculating, Pagan Jim.
        Michael Alan Goff
        Reply Vote
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