Apple's iPad continues to dominate the tablet industry.
December 27, 2011- The iPad still rules. The Apple tablet once again dominated the market for the third quarter of 2011. Nevertheless, rival tablets from Barnes & Noble and Amazon are increasing the pressure on the iPad. Total shipments for the tablet market increased nearly 24% in the third quarter. Over 18 million tablets were shipped or close 20% of the total PCs that were shipped during the same period.
The iPad accounted for over 61% of the market during the third quarter with over 11.1 million units shipped. That was up from the 9.3 million that were shipped during the second quarter. However, the 61% market share for Apple represented a drop of 8% from the previous quarter.
Tablets operated by the Android system also fell in market share, but by less than 1%. However, the total number shipped increased nearly 50% from 3.6 million to over 6 million. Analysts say the share for Android tablets will surpass 40% of the market share in the fourth quarter of this year due to Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Amazon’s Kindle’s strong sales.
Experts say fourth quarter sales for the sector will be this year’s best. An estimated 23.5 million tablets are expected to be shipped. That would amount to more than 25% of the estimated PC sales for the quarter. That figure would also be higher than the 18 million tablets that were shipped for all of 2010, by all makers of the device.
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