Android tablets continue to dominate the market

by Mark Tyson on 29 April 2014, 15:15

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According to the latest report by research firm Strategy Analytics, 1Q14 tablet shipments reached 57.6 million units globally. It shows that Google's Android platform is well in the lead, taking the lion's share by securing a 65.8 per cent chunk of all sales, extending its dominance of the tablet market.

The global shipment figure has risen 19 per cent from 48.3 million in 1Q13 and Android platform's market share also surged from 53 per cent a year ago. Apple's iOS, on the other hand, saw a dip in sales which resulted in a decline to 28.4 per cent in market share from 40.3 per cent of the previous year – that's quite a drop in proportion. In the recent Apple financials we have also observed a cooling demand for Apple pricy tablets.

A breakdown of figures is shown below:

Apple's disappointing performance in 1Q14 was said to be related to the company's change in product release cycle to the holiday timeframe. If this theory is correct, iOS is likely to lose share over the next few months to newer Android products but Peter King, Director of Tablets at Strategy Analytics also stated that he believes that Apple will claw back high-end market share during the last few months of the calendar year.

Another interesting finding from the report is evidence of a steady increase in Microsoft's tablet sales numbers. Windows tablets sales increased to 3.4 million from 2.8 million in the same quarter last year, holding a stable market share of 5.8 per cent.

Windows hardware/apps, chicken/egg situation

"There may be an uptick in Windows following Microsoft's decision to offer Windows for free for sub 9-inch devices," according to the Strategy Analytics report. It points out that a new batch of 8-inch Windows based Tablets with reduced prices may emerge to help sell the platform, although they may still not be as inexpensive as Android tabs.

"The shortage of apps continues to be a problem, with seemingly little incentive for developers to work on the platform," was also put forward as a negative signal for Windows tablets. However Microsoft's smaller Intel-powered tablets do have a massive range of traditional desktop apps available, yet are sometimes sorely lacking the finger-friendliness of the Modern UI versions.

HEXUS Forums :: 11 Comments

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Posted by Biscuit - Tue 29 Apr 2014 16:05
I wonder what the difference in upgrade cycle is? I Upgrade my devices fairly regularly (18-24 months perhaps?) however not everyone is the same. I suspect people with even the first Retina iPad see very little need to upgrade to an new one. Even the iPad 2, given the casual nature of the devices, would probably still do everything it needs too for most people.
Posted by Jenny_Y8S - Tue 29 Apr 2014 16:55
“taking the lion's share by securing a 65.8 per cent chunk of all sales”

By number of sales or by income? Tesco sure sold a lot of Hudls but did they make any money from them? Apple sell iPads at a profit and then continue to make money from app / media revenue. Samsung make less profit from tablets than apple and make next to nothing from the post purchase income.

Shifting boxes is not a great measure of success. Apple could easily sell more units by making inferior machines and selling them cheap but they've never played that game and they never will.

You can easily buy a dozen barrel bottom low end android tablets for the price of one ultra high end iPad. I wonder which ‘side’ would swap with the other if they could?
Posted by Saracen - Tue 29 Apr 2014 18:09
Jenny_Y8S
….

You can easily buy a dozen barrel bottom low end android tablets for the price of one ultra high end iPad. I wonder which ‘side’ would swap with the other if they could?
Personally, I wouldn't buy either “barrel-bottom” Android tablets, or an iPad. But I'm more likely to buy half-decent modestly priced Android tablet, and am still not going to buy iPad.
Posted by valhar2000 - Tue 29 Apr 2014 18:14
My biggest problem with Windows tablets is that they cost at least 50% more than similarly spec'd Android tablets. Even if you like Windows, going for Android is a no-brainer.
Posted by crossy - Tue 29 Apr 2014 19:45
Jenny_Y8S
By number of sales or by income? Tesco sure sold a lot of Hudls but did they make any money from them? Apple sell iPads at a profit and then continue to make money from app / media revenue. Samsung make less profit from tablets than apple and make next to nothing from the post purchase income.
You can easily buy a dozen barrel bottom low end android tablets for the price of one ultra high end iPad. I wonder which ‘side’ would swap with the other if they could?
Sigh! Tesco has always come clean that the whole purpose of Hudl (and the Kindle Fire come to that) is as a vehicle to sell other services - whether it be online shopping and video (Hudle) or music and video (Kindle Fire). It's also interesting that Android folks have had the “we've got the largest market share” boast rammed down our throats at every opportunity by Apple and their iFan lackeys. So if this shuts the latter up then it's good news in my book. (And no - I'm not necessarily laying that “iFan lackey” accusation at you Jenny_Y8S)
Oh, and your “barrel bottom” android tablets will probably be 7“ ones, so not that comparable to a high price, sorry ”high end“ ;) iPad. I don't think you'll find many Android fans buying those no-name ones - too risky … as the cliché says ”there's a price to all this cheapness".
Interesting that I got a mail recently from Dabs who were selling reconditioned Galaxy Note 10.1's at only £10 less than the cost of a new iPad 2 in the same mailing. Okay, the ‘2 is old now - but where’s that Apple premium?
I tried to sell someone on getting an iPad (Mini) at Christmas, but when they compared capabilities they ended up with a slightly more expensive Note 8 - mainly because they claimed that there was a lot more the Note could do, and the much touted screen on the iPM was actually worse than the Notes.
valhar2000
My biggest problem with Windows tablets is that they cost at least 50% more than similarly spec'd Android tablets. Even if you like Windows, going for Android is a no-brainer.
If you're talking about “proper” Windows tablets then you can get one or two for the same cost as a Galaxy Tab 3 - HP Omni 10 for example. On the other hand if you can put up with Windows RT then there's the Surface's (1 and 2) plus ones from Nokia and others - all at about the same cost as a mainstream Android tablet. For the high end user I don't think that the “choose Android” mantra is any more true than “choose iPad” is/was - unless you need a particular app then it's pretty easy to get a decent one (just avoid anything by Acer).

I'd actually like to see Windows do better, maybe even take some market share from Android so we have a more “balanced” market. But that presupposes that Microsoft can encourage developers to support Windows RT which is the bottom end offering.

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