Android tablets now 30% of the market, Windows tablets outsold PlayBook in Q2

Boy Genius Report ^ | July 21, 2011 | Zach Epstein

[FromTheSidelines]

Apple, which owned more than 94% of the market in the second quarter last year, saw the iPad’s share slide to 61.3% according to Strategy Analytics. Over the same period of time, Android tablets jumped from a 2.9% share to a 30% share last quarter.

[FromTheSidelines]

Big changes in the tablet market, I believe it's a direct reflection of Android becoming the dominant smartphone OS. We'll probably continue to see this change, with next year showing Android tablets dominating market share somewhere in the 55-60% range.

[kingu]

Wonder if the Nook Color was counted in there, especially now that it’s outselling Kindle, and is probably one of the most common Android tablets out there.

[BenKenobi]

Why isn’t this posted by Swordmaker? I thought that Apple was invincible! ;)

[MrEdd]

It is marketed as a book reader, and probably isn’t counted.

[FromTheSidelines]

Probably not. Google counts activations only - those are for devices that require registration with Google (for GMail, Market, and other Google services). TTBOMK, Nook does not require activation with Google to operate, so it’s probably not counted in any Android sales figures.

[RayChuang88]

I’ve actually tried a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and find it a pretty neat device. Pity that Android 3.1 is not as polished as iOS 4.3.4 is, let alone the gigantic ecosystem behind iOS....

[PUGACHEV]

I bought the Motorola Zoom, an Android tablet, and I am very disappointed with it.

[Maringa]

Misleading headlines I believe...question is how many more iPads were sold this year vs. last year...I believe that this is a growing market, and inevitable that Apple would lose some market share...especially when you start off at 100%

[esoxmagnum]

It’s all lies! Apple beats everyone! They own 300% of the current market and 400% percent of all future markets!

They are all made here in America, and what they do make in China is done with American workers who they ship overseas to work in American Factories! They have never used child labor (and when they admitted to doing it, even then they didn’t do it).

They are not a leftist company, Al Gore has nothing to do with Apple, and Steve Jobs is a Great American!

Apple has never supported the homo agenda! Never! And Apple gives more to conservatives than liberals, even Al Gore now supports Palin!

Microsoft suing everyone for copyright infringement proves they are a baaaaad capitalist company, but when Apple does it, it proves they are asserting their dominance in the market!

(Swordmaker Talking points)

[dayglored]

> (Swordmaker Talking points)

Nice baiting, esoxmagnum. You sure know how to keep FreeRepublic classy.

The obvious reason Apple's share of the market fell is that someone, anyone, introduced some competition. Until then, any "percentage" figures were, more or less, stupid, whether it's Apple or anyone else. I have 100% of the FreeRepublic market in users called "dayglored". Duh.

The marketplace will determine the values of the various tablets. I don't have one, as I don't particularly need one at this time. So I figure I'll have lots to choose from by the time I get around to it.

In the meantime, since growing from, say, 1% of the market to 10% of the market is a OMG 1000% growth OMG!, why not celebrate something more useful like the strength of a Free Market economy where innovation (like Apple's) can be met with reasonable competition (like Android's) to the betterment of all and greater consumer choices?

I look forward to Microsoft throwing their contribution in at some point, hopefully not too late.

Percentages in a brand new market are just Stupid Sales Tricks until you have let it settle out a little bit. Regardless of who you're rooting for.

[dayglored]

> Misleading headlines I believe...question is how many more iPads were sold this year vs. last year...I believe that this is a growing market, and inevitable that Apple would lose some market share...especially when you start off at 100%

Precisely correct.

But when a tech writer whore wants to make a headline, they aren't interested in facts or common sense. It's all about page views.

[ctdonath2]

And it took how many companies mimicking Apple using a free OS to get up to half of Apple’s share of a market it started?

[dayglored]

> And it took how many companies mimicking Apple using a free OS to get up to half of Apple’s share of a market it started?

Android faces much the same problem that the Linux OS itself faces -- diffusion due to hundreds of variants. Lack of product focus. Lack of coherence. You can tell me what an iPhone looks and acts like. Can you tell me what an Android phone looks and acts like? No, because there are hundreds, of varying aspects and quality.

Android products will become a much more considerable market force when they congeal a bit and all but say 2 or 3 Android-based product families remain.

Until then, grouping them all together as "Android" is just another Stupid Sales Trick. There is no such thing as "the Android product family" any more than all computers that use Intel CPUs are all one big family.

[Swordmaker]

Boy Genius Reports that Strategy Analytics says that Android Tablets are now 30% of the Tablet Market—PING!

Frankly, I don't believe it. Not after Apple shocked the financial world when they reported selling 9.25 million iPads in the last quarter when the Street was estimating as few as 7 million! The figures Strategy Analytics had to be using are the estimates... not the actual figures... and they report NOT sell through, but "shipped" figures for the Android tablets.

Apple iPad v. Android Tablet Ping!

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[Swordmaker]

Since this is a report about the last quarter, usage would be a good indicator... here is an independent check on that from late June:
Source, June 27, 2011

[dayglored]

That bar graph can't be right. It's missing the Microsoft "Surface". Surely that's a tablet, right?

Someone will doubtless kvetch that it is only North American, and that worldwide is different. :)

[dayglored]

> ...they congeal a bit and all but say 2 or 3 Android-based product families remain.

Oops, "all but" should have been "only".

Overall this article looks like pure BS. I have not seen any indication that 30% of tablets in use are Androids. Someone is either playing games with the meaning of "is", or just making up crap. 10-15%, I might believe.

[FromTheSidelines]

Your data is for North America; the report was worldwide. Android tablets have a MUCH greater penetration in Asia, especially. Just like Nokia is the biggest cell phone maker in the world, but barely registers anything in the US.

Please do not try to stretch US results to cover the entire world.

[FromTheSidelines]

In the meantime, since growing from, say, 1% of the market to 10% of the market is a OMG 1000% growth OMG!

To be honest, we do see that with some segments of Apple as well; for example, the recent report that Apple broached 3% of the worldwide PC market was heralded not for the 0.4% change in actual worldwide market share, but a stunning 15% growth.

[FromTheSidelines]

Android faces much the same problem that the Linux OS itself faces -- diffusion due to hundreds of variants.

Until then, grouping them all together as "Android" is just another Stupid Sales Trick. There is no such thing as "the Android product family" any more than all computers that use Intel CPUs are all one big family.

I'm not sure that analogy holds, though... Think about your typical Intel PC. You can buy pretty much any hard disk, video card, network adapter, and USB mouse you want and it'll pretty much work. The hardware, for modern PCs, really is "plug and play". The PC market is not hampered, but helped, by having dozens of vendors in it.

The reason this works? Mainly because most PCs run Windows, and the drivers are supported for all those different types and platforms of hardware. You don't need to buy Dell branded memory for your laptop, or an Acer hard disk for your desktop. You can mix-and-match.

I believe the Android ecosystem will end up the same way; we already see generic USB support on Android (you can plug in pretty much and USB device, including flash drives). I think we'll always have dozens of manufacturers offering different hardware platforms but interoperability will be gained via the OS.

So, much like the PC market exploded once the software/driver/BIOS end of things was genericized, I think we're seeing the same thing with tablets. Now that you can get extremely high end to very entry level tablet hardware - and run the same basic OS on all of them - we're seeing a rapid ascent of Android options.