Just 15 months ago Apple commanded 70% of the global tablet market, but according to the latest figures from research firm IDC, the iPad has slipped to less than 30% market share. The reason is the growing threats from Android tablets from the likes of Samsung, Lenovo, Asus.
Apple decision to shift its iPad launches to the fall from earlier in the year appears to have undermined its standing versus rival tablet makers.
Apple decision to shift its iPad launches to the fall from earlier in the year appears to have undermined its standing versus rival tablet makers.
Even with that seasonal factor, the numbers dont look great for Apple because its sales in Q3 2013 are just 100,000 iPads than they were in Q2 2013, and thats with the new and cheaper iPad mini in the market. Also un-welcome is the momentum of the arch rival Samsung, which managed to more than double its shipments from 4.3m to 9.7m. Lenovo also did well, pushing 2.3 slabs out of the doo, up from 0.4m a year back.
Despite the stuttering Apple sales figures, the tablet market as a whole grew by 36% year on year and was up 7% compared to the 2nd quarter of 2013.
The tablet market is starting to look like the smartphone market. Apple defines the industry, then watches as a bunch of low cost competitors eat up share. Apple is still the most profitable of the bunch.
Google sees the tablet market as a fresh opportunity to control personal computing. It has no chance to take desktop computing away from Microsoft, so its attacking tablet computing, which eats into Apple's market share.
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