Android Tablet Sales Eating Into Apple Market Share

The two of the largest titans in the smartphone industry, Apple and Google, have always been at loggerheads with each other, be it in lengthy court battles or the hyper-competitive tech market. But, as expected, when two large objects try to occupy the same space, there’s bound to be some friction. Google’s Android tablets have seen a tremendous amount of success in the market and this has begun to affect Apple’s iPad market share value, which dipped 14% in the third quarter.

Taken together, the entire iPad line of tablets cornered approximately 55% market share in the third quarter, but as data collected by ABI Research shows, this represents the nadir of its market share since the first iPad was released in 2010. A lot of this decline can be attributed to popular tablets sold by Samsung, Amazon and Asus that run Google’s Android operating system, having secured 44% of tablet shipments. According to Jeff Orr, ABI’s senior practice director, Apple has come to realize the value of smaller, lower-cost tablets that Android’s 7-inch tablets brought to the table and has tried to match that with its own iPad Mini. However, he believes that there was a lot lacking in innovation, pricing and availability of the iPad Mini, which effectively means that the company has failed to come up with a competitive offering during the holiday season.

Pew Reasearch noted that Apple’s decline in market share started when Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD, both priced at $199, hit the market. According to Orr, it seems clear from this trend that Android’s surge in the market will continue, as it becomes the top choice of operating systems for a majority of the OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers). While the tablet market might still be a neck-and-neck struggle between the two companies, recent research has shown that the smartphone market has seen a massive tilt in favour of Google’s platform. Sales of Android-powered smartphones have accounted for 72.4% of all smartphones sold during the third quarter, while Apple’s iOS-powered smartphones have trailed behind at 13.9%

There seems to be little doubt amongst many observers and analysts that Google might be gaining an upper-hand in the tech market over Apple but there are, of course, other factors that must also be considered. According to a news report ad network firm Chitika, released in June 2012, the iPad was responsible for more than 91% of tablet web traffic, despite only having owned 70% of the tablet market at the time. These figures show that though Android tablet sales are rising, the iPad sees much greater use in hands of customers than Android tablets, which leaves conclusions about Apple’s decline in the market still uncertain.