Global tablet shipments reached
17 million units in the third quarter of 2011. Apple iOS and Android dominate
the worldwide market with a combined 94 percent share.
Global tablet shipments
touched 16.7 million units in Q3 2011, growing 280 percent from 4.4 million in
Q3 2010,” said Peter King, director at Strategy Analytics.
Demand for tablets in developed
and developing markets remains high. Apple shipped a record 11.1 million iPads
and achieved 67 percent global tablet market share during the third quarter of
2011. Apple iOS remains the dominant tablet platform with the most established
services ecosystem.
Apple
is also the smartphone and tablet of choice amongst small and medium-sized
businesses, according to Intermedia.
78
percent use an Apple-based device, with 57 percent choosing the iPhone and 21
percent choosing the iPad. iPad activation is up 102 percent since May when
Intermedia last reported cloud mobility statistics, with more users relying on
iPad than any other single ActiveSync smartphone or tablet, except for iPhone.
According to Strategy
Analytics, Android captured 27 percent share of global tablet shipments in Q3
2011, rising twelve-fold from 2 percent a year earlier. Dozens of Android
models distributed across multiple countries by numerous brands such as
Samsung, Acer and others have been driving volumes.
Industry eyes will next turn
to the commercial launch of the Amazon Fire. Amazon’s strategy of minimizing
its hardware price is set to ignite the entry-level tablet segment and attract
more mass-market consumers,” said Neil Mawston, director at Strategy Analytics.
Microsoft captured 2 percent
global tablet share in Q3 2011. The future release of Windows 8 cannot come
quickly enough for Microsoft, so its hardware partners can start competing more
effectively in the tablet space.
RIM and its QNX platform
captured 1 percent global tablet share in Q3 2011. The next-generation PlayBook
2.0 model will need to offer a much improved ecosystem for messaging and
consumer apps if it wants to take off.
