Apple seems to have sailed strong even as the rest of the tablet market faltered in the first three months this year, according to research conducted by the International Data Corporation. The total shipments in the tablet market were 17.4 million in the first quarter this year, which is 1.2 million less than what the IDC had predicted. Though that figure is down by 38.4 % as compared to the shipments during the holiday season when users tend to shop more, the figure shot up by 120 % as compared to the number of tablets shipped around the same time last year in 2011.
Android based tablets have performed weaker than expected and this may have resulted in their fall in the tablet market. About 11.8 million iPads were sold during this quarter. RIM’s Blackberry Playbook failed sell in any substantial numbers. Tablets that run on Android managed to comprise of a few million unit shipments. According to IDC, even though Android based tablets were lagging a bit, with Lenovo and Samsung gaining control over the market through their Android based products, things are expected to change later this year.
Nonetheless, Apple can’t seemed to be bothered by Android since going by IDC’s research Apple’s market share saw an increase from 54.7% to 68% in about the last six months. The Kindle Fire by Amazon witnessed only a 4% increase in its market share in the first quarter this year. Within the Android network, Samsung grabbed the maximum market share, while Amazon and Lenovo followed behind.
Though Android sellers made major gains during the holiday shopping season last year, their figures in the market have considerably dropped. Apple continues to dominate the market meanwhile. Apple has wisely promoted the iPad as a tablet which serves all purposes, rather than being a device concerned only with content consumption. This has worked extremely well for them among consumers, as well as commercial and educational buyers. Apple’s decision to maintain the price of iPad 2 lower than the newly launched iPad is working in their favor as well.
Going by reports by NPD DisplaySearch, shipments in the tablet market are expected to increase tremendously in the near future, reaching about 184.2 million units in 2013, and rising to 424.9 million over the next four years.
