Telecom Lead America: As Apple’s iPad 3 is expected to
come into the market, Apple will continue to dominate tablet sale and sell in
significant volumes through 2016, but it will face competition from Android and
Windows, according to a study by iGR.
The vast majority of consumers interested in buying a
tablet want Apple iPad as their new tablet computer.
iGR forecasts that by 2016, tablet sales in the U.S. to
reach approximately 45.3 million. On an OS basis, we are forecasting that Apple
will sell approximately 27.3 million tablets in 2016; Android-based tablet
sales will reach about 13.9 million.
“Clearly, this study shows that the Apple iPad
continues to dominate the U.S. tablet market, even after the launch of the
Amazon Kindle Fire. While Amazon has made some inroads into the market, the
other OEMs have had little impact to date. That said, there are signs in the
consumer base of potential acceptance of alternative platforms. For Apple’s
competitors, now is the time to rethink the tablet market and attack the
opportunity again,” said Iain Gillott, president and founder of iGR.
In 2011, Apple sold about 19.63 million iPads in the U.S.
The total market in 2011 was just over 28.1 million units. Android-based tablet
sales in 2011 totaled approximately 7.7 million — a substantial number,
certainly — but 47 percent of those sales happened in the fourth quarter and
61 percent of those 4Q sales were generated by Amazon.
Apple
was leading the worldwide media tablet shipments in Q3 2011. The company
shipped 11.1 million units in Q3 2011, up from 9.3 million units in Q2 2011.
Apple’s tablet market share reduced to 61.5 percent in Q3
from 63.3 percent in Q2 2011.
The research study by iGR research suggests that tablets
are, at present, primarily purchased as an additional computing device, not
necessarily a true replacement device. Over the forecast period, this is
anticipated to change, creating more market opportunity for tablet OEMs.
