Android holds nearly 40 percent of global tablet market

Android tablets gain market share versus iPad, which dropped to 57.6% of the tablets sold during the most recent fourth quarter, from 68.2% a year earlier; Android rose to 39.1% from 29.0%.




The iPad doesn’t have one tablet in particular that it can consider direct competition — but Apple should take Android a little more seriously after a new report released this week.

Android came on strong during the fourth quarter, and it retained 39.1 percent of the global tablet market share as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2011, according to the latest report from Strategy Analytics. Motorola, maker of the Android powered XOOM, reports that they shipped 1 Million Tablets in 2011.

Apple is still in the lead as iPad shipments are doing pretty well at 57.6 percent, but that global gap appears to be closing more so these days.

Nevertheless, Strategy Analytics director Peter King explained in the report that “Apple shrugged off the much-hyped threat from entry-level Android models this quarter” as 15.4 million iPads worldwide shipped worldwide during Q4.

While the report does not cite which Android devices are doing the best, Laptop Magazine uncovered the two leading the pack, and you won’t be terribly surprised.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet (both released last fall, so they haven’t even been on the market a full year — barely a full quarter each) make up nearly the majority of Android tablet shipments together make up 40 percent of the Android share, according to King as told to Laptop.

The Android surge was led primarily by tablets from Amazon and Samsung Electronics, according to Strategy Analytics' Neil Mawston. "Android is so far proving relatively popular with tablet manufacturers despite nagging concerns about fragmentation of Android's operating system, user interface and app store ecosystem," Mawston wrote in a note on the report.

Source : Laptop Magazine