A new study conducted by Strategy Analytics has found that Apple ranks number one in terms of the global tablet shipments for the fourth quarter of 2011. Although Android has maintained a steadfast leading position in the smartphone OS market, as illustrated by a recent Nielsen research, Apple seems to have gained an upper hand as far as tablets are concerned.
The newly released results of this study show that 27 million tablet units were shipped in the fourth quarter of 2011. While the Apple iPad occupied a majority of the global market share with 58 percent, Android tablets recorded a 39 percent global share.
Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, stated, “Android captured a record 39 percent share of global tablet shipments in Q4 2011, rising from 29 percent a year earlier. Global Android tablet shipments tripled annually to 10.5 million units. Dozens of Android models distributed across multiple countries by numerous brands such as Amazon, Samsung, Asus and others have been driving volumes. 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.”
Peter King, Director at Strategy Analytics reveals that the demand for slates has increased by 150 percent all over the world as compared to the figures that were recorded in the fourth quarter of 2010. As per the study, about 15.4 million iPads were retailed in Q4 2011. Although there are many companies manufacturing tablets running on the Android OS, Apple has shown that its iPad, which has somewhat been the inspiration behind the whole tablet revolution, still maintains the top position.
Another interesting finding that emerged from this Strategy Analytics study is that the amount of tablets shipped globally in 2011 was 66.9 million which is a 260 percent leap from the 18.6 million figure registered in 2010.