Apple iPad Losing Ground to Android Tablets
Ah, the never-ending battle betwixt iOS and Android moves from the smartphone battleground today into the tablet theatre of war as more and more Android based tablets come out to play and threaten the dominance of the Apple iPad.
According to an article over on Mashable by way of Business Week, although Android’s tablet only operating system, Android 3.0 Honeycomb isn’t out yet, Android tablets are doing reasonably well in the mobile space according to figures.
Those figures come from market research company Strategy Analytics which say that during Q4 of 2010 Android tablets rose to 22% market share, which equates to virtually a tenfold increase when compared to the previous quarter’s 2.3%.
According to the figures, strong sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab are the reason for the large jump. As for the Apple iPad, the figures show Apple in the last quarter shifted some 7.3 million iPad units while the tablet accounted for 75% of worldwide shipments in Q4 dropping down from 96% the previous quarter.
Google is holding an event on Wednesday where it is hoped they will release Android 3.0 Honeycomb, which would make Android tablets the main runner against Apple’s iOS tablet. However Apple is also due to release the Apple iPad 2 shortly, so maybe with the arrival of that, Apple may be able to fend off the Android tablet invasion for a while longer.
Of course iOS fanboys will jump to the defence of their favoured platform while the Android faithful will no doubt say that Apple has had its day and it is time to hand over the reigns to Android. But I’m pretty sure both Apple and Android will be around for quite some time vying for the top position.
Comments
2 thoughts on “Apple iPad Losing Ground to Android Tablets”
I own an iPad and an Android phone and use windows PCs (business use) so my own take is biased accordingly. I am not a 'fanboy' for anything, but due to many years as a PC user tend to find that world (MS Excel/Word/PowerPoint) more intuitive – especially for power using business features.
As an early adopter I found the Android phone to be very intriguing and fun. It showed me many of the possibilities coming down the road. However having used Microsoft phones since the beginning (Pocket PC/Phone edition) and before (Pocket PC) I had long been spoiled not just with having a PC in my pocket, but also with seamless integration within my PC environment. I soon reached the limits with it and started to become frustrated with either the Android's clumsiness or lack of capability to easily sync across my devices or access things like Sharepoint, MESH, etc.
I should also say that I've used tablet PCs for about a decade and have always been (after initial excitement) disappointed in its weight, lack of intuitiveness and poor battery life. Then I purchased an iPad. Wow! What I had been waiting for… Until, again, I ran into the integration problem.
All that to make a simple point that applies only to people with similar biases to me: I continue to look for my holy Grail of a seamlessly integrated (to my Windows-based business computing environment) iPad-like user experience in tablet computing (with the addition of smooth stylus capability for One-Note), but until then see no – or very little – Android advantage that would lessen the inconveniences that I now experience in my trade-off for the benefits that I now realize.
The reason why I use apple is because they have the headstart. Why?
Who invented the first smart phone? What is everone’s favorite gaming
device? Why does ios have the most apps? Other “competitors” better
stop going for apple’s table scraps and start being inventive
themselves. I’d rather have better apps than a better camera.