Last week, we pointed to tablet estimates for the second quarter of 2012 from research firm Strategy Analytics, results that shows Apple continuing to dominate the tablet market with 68% of shipments during the quarter. Google's Android platform accounted for most of the remaining shipments, taking 29% of the market.
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Worldwide Tablet Shipments in 2Q12 in Millions of Units (Source: IDC)
IDC has now released its own estimates of tablet shipments for the quarter, and while the overall picture is very similar to Strategy Analytics' numbers with estimates of 25 million tablets shipped and a 68% share for Apple's iPad, IDC offers an interesting look at the competition by breaking things down by manufacturer instead of by platform. According to IDC, Samsung remains the number two tablet manufacturer behind Apple, but despite strong 117.6% year-over-year shipment growth still saw its tablets outsold by the iPad by a margin of 7-to-1.
"Apple built upon its strong March iPad launch and ended the quarter with its best-ever shipment total for the iPad, outrunning even the impressive shipment record it set in the fourth quarter of last year," said Tom Mainelli, research director, Mobile Connected Devices. "The vast majority of consumers continue to favor the iPad over competitors, and Apple is seeing increasingly strong interest in the device from vertical markets—especially education. While iPad shipment totals are beginning to slow a bit in mature markets where the device saw early traction, growth in other regions is clearly more than making up the difference."
Growth in tablets is clearly occurring at the top of the market, with Apple, Samsung, and ASUS experiencing strong year-over-year growth and Amazon having a strong entry into the market with its Kindle Fire. Smaller players are seeing their shares of the market shrink, with Acer's shipments dropping nearly 40% and the collective "other" smaller manufacturers seeing their sales slide by 16%.
Apple's 17 million iPad shipments were a new record for the company as it rides the momentum of the new third-generation iPad and its lowest entry-level pricing ever with the Wi-Fi iPad 2 continuing to be available at a lower price of just $399. With competitors launching smaller tablets that have enabled them to push tablet pricing down toward $199, Apple is reportedly looking to launch its own "iPad mini" later this year with an eye toward capturing that portion of the market as well.
Top Rated Comments
Microsoft Surface, c'mon faster...
Its ad on YouTube has over 6 million views :O
I don't think Surface is going to take down the iPad.
A) The RT version is not full Windows 8
B) The Pro version is not going to be cheap
C) People may not like Windows 8.
D) People increasingly don't like Windows in general.
I don't think the Surface is the home run people think it's going to be.
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Right, but no manufacturer can give an accurate sales number. Apple has a better chance given that it sells a lot directly but the actual sales number for any device like this will always be a guess at best.
Apple constantly sells "every iPad they can make", so when they give shipment numbers, that's pretty much the same as sales numbers. Everyone else gives shipment numbers and then the units rot on the shelves, maybe except for the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire.
The only thing that could slow down the iPad at Christmas is whether or not Apple can keep up with demand.
Microsoft Surface, c'mon faster...
Another one bites the dust. Macrumours, please bring back the downvote button. Also consider adding a "hidden because of too many downvotes" threshold.Its ad on YouTube has over 6 million views :O
PS. IGNORE list update commencing.
Wait when the iPad mini comes. The huge sucking sound is the air being pulled out the lungs of competitors.
Has anyone else played with the pro version? The specs are nice (high core count), but the experience is pretty unimpressive .. the stylus, handwriting recognition is about the same as the old tablet pc .. but the tiles and such? ugh - looks like zune all over again .. even the early apple betas don't compare to some of the glitchiness in the interface
I haven't tried any Surface stuff, but I have tried Windows 8 enough to know that it's going to majorly piss people off. I'm predicting anger of Vista proportions.
"This size isn't sufficient to create great tablet apps in our opinion. Well, one could increase the resolution of the display to make up for some of the difference. It is meaningless, unless your tablet also includes sandpaper, so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one quarter of the present size. Apple's done extensive user-testing on touch interfaces over many years, and we really understand this stuff. There are clear limits of how close you can physically place elements on a touch screen before users cannot reliably tap, flick or pinch them. This is one of the key reasons we think the 10-inch screen size is the minimum size required to create great tablet apps."
- Jobs
Can't wait to hear the workaround on this one
"People don't read"
"People don't want to watch video on an iPod"
"People don't want flash MP3 players_
All stated by Jobs before eventually:
announcing iBooks
announcing the iPod Video
announcing the shuffle