14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is clearly leading the tablet market in terms of sales, and will continue to do so for years, but market research firm IDC believes it is only a matter of time before the iPad loses to the rest.
Granted, it is still noteworthy that one product belonging to a single company is doing better than the rest of the market combined. There are many suppliers of Android-loaded tablets after all.
At any rate, IDC believes that Apple's iPad will be overtaken by the Android tablet segment in three or four years.
“As the sole vendor shipping iOS products, Apple will remain dominant in terms of worldwide vendor unit shipments,” said Tom Mainelli, research director of mobile connected devices at IDC.
“However, the sheer number of vendors shipping low-priced, Android-based tablets means that Google's OS will overtake Apple's in terms of worldwide market share by 2015. We expect iOS to remain the revenue market share leader through the end of our 2016 forecast period and beyond>”
The main cause behind this forecast is, as some may be able to surmise, Amazon, whose Kindle Fire tablet easily smashed the $499 / 470 Euro “standard” price to pieces.
"Amazon's widely-reported entry into the media tablet market with a $199, 7-inch product seemed to raise consumers' awareness of the category worldwide despite the fact that the Fire shipped almost exclusively in the U.S. in the fourth quarter," Mainelli said.
"As a result, products across the pricing spectrum sold well, including everything from Apple's premium-priced iPads (which start at $499) to Pandigital's line of Android-based, entry-level tablets (which start at $120). The success of market leader Apple was particularly noteworthy, as the company's shipment total for the quarter represents an increase of 110.5% from 4Q10."
Of course, even if the combined sales of Android tables exceed those of Apple's iPad, the latter will still lead in terms of sales per company.