Wednesday, 14 September 2011

Apple's iOS mobile operating system continues to dominate the worldwide tablet market in the second quarter, increasing to 68.3 percent global market share (up from 65.7 percent a quarter ago) thanks to strong demand for the company's iPad 2.

Research firm IDC reports that worldwide media tablet shipments rose by 88.9 percent sequentially in the second quarter and 303.8 percent year-over-year--in all, shipments totaled 13.6 million units, with the iPad 2 accounting for 9.3 million. Google's Android tablet market share slipped from 34.0 percent in the first quarter to 26.8 percent, due both to Apple's dominance and the introduction of Research in Motion's BlackBerry PlayBook, which captured 4.9 percent market share. IDC expects Android's market share to drop as low as 23 percent during the third quarter while rebounding to 25.9 percent during the fourth quarter as manufacturers bring new products to market.

IDC raised its total shipment forecast for 2011 to 62.5 million units, up from a previous projection of 53.5 million units. "We expect shipment totals to continue to grow in the third and fourth quarter, as additional vendors introduce more price-competitive Android products into the market and Apple works to maintain its dominance in the category," said IDC Mobile Connected Devices research director Tom Mainelli in a statement.

Shifting to the e-reader market, IDC reports that the market experienced a seasonal sequential drop of 9 percent to 5.4 million units, although year-over-year growth reached 167 percent. Amazon.com's Kindle leads the market with a 51.7 percent share, followed by Barnes & Noble's Nook at 21.2 percent. IDC expects e-reader shipments to reach 27.0 million in 2011, bolstered by product refreshes and holiday season demand.