Playing for high stakes
Recent figures from market researcher Strategy Analytics reveal it was not just Apple that had a great quarter for tablet sales.
While reviews of Android tablets have generally been lukewarm at best, that didn't stop them shipping 4.6 million units in the second quarter of this year. It should be noted, however, that this is a sell-in figure, and that some of that stock may not have actually been bought by an end-user.
The table below refers to the platform on which the tablets are based, and QNX is the new BlackBerry platform. RIM will presumably be disappointed that even Windows 7-based tablets outsold its PlayBook in Q2, but it's still early days for that product, and only today the PlayBook was revealed to be the first tablet to be approved for use within US federal government.
Global Tablet Operating System Shipments and Market Share in Q2 2011
|
Global Tablet OS Shipments (Millions of Units) |
|
Q2 '10 |
|
|
Q2 '11 |
|
Apple iOS |
|
3.3 |
|
|
9.3 |
|
Android |
0.1 |
4.6 |
|||
|
Microsoft |
0.0 |
0.7 |
|||
|
QNX |
0.0 |
0.5 |
|||
|
Others |
|
0.1 |
|
|
0.1 |
|
Total |
|
3.5 |
|
|
15.1 |
|
|
|||||
|
Global Tablet OS Marketshare % |
|
Q2 '10 |
|
|
Q2 '11 |
|
Apple iOS |
94.3% |
61.3% |
|||
|
Android |
2.9% |
30.1% |
|||
|
Microsoft |
0.0% |
4.6% |
|||
|
QNX |
0.0% |
3.3% |
|||
|
Others |
|
2.9% |
|
|
0.7% |
|
Total |
|
100.00% |
|
|
100.0% |
|
|
|||||
|
Growth Year-over-Year % |
N / A |
331% |
"Multiple Android models distributed across multiple countries by multiple brands such as Samsung, Acer, Asus, Motorola and others are driving volumes," said Neil Mawston, director at Strategy Analytics.
"However, no Android vendor yet offers a blockbuster model to rival the iPad, and demand for many Android vendors' products remains patchy. If Amazon decides to enter the Android tablet category later this year, that will bring fresh excitement and buzz to the Android community, but Amazon will need to deliver a truly standout offering if it really wants to make headway against the popular iPad."
That may seem a bit mean-spirited given the extent to which Android has eaten into the Apple tablet monopoly, but with the sheer amount of R&D, sales and marketing resources that have been thrown by the likes of Motorola and ASUS at the Android tablet market mean that it would be a disaster if there wasn't this kind of sell-in.
The question all would-be tablet players still have to address is: why should someone buy my product instead of an iPad. This is tricky as, right now, Apple has the brand, the momentum and the developer ecosystem. It has also cruelly priced the iPad at a level the competition are finding hard to beat.
While these figures offer some encouragement to the broader tablet market, it would be interesting to see how much it's costing all the others to reduce Apple's market share so much. We suspect Motorola, RIM and the rest are pocketing very little, if anything, from their tablet efforts so far.
