Android Tablets Gain on IPad in Fourth Quarter, Researcher Says
Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) — Google Inc.'s Android boosted its share of tablet computers almost tenfold in the fourth quarter, narrowing the lead of Apple Inc.'s iPad, market researcher Strategy Analytics said.
Context & Ripple Effects
When tablets last showed up in this corpus' usage data, in July 2010, the iPad was blasting past Android with no credible rival shipped. Six months later, Strategy Analytics counts Android's tablet share up almost tenfold in Q4, almost entirely on the back of Samsung's Galaxy Tab — though same-day reporting from Digits quotes that the Tab's actual sales were 'quite small,' meaning the gain likely comes off a near-zero base rather than a genuine dent in Apple volumes.
First-order effects
- Apple's Q4 lead narrows for the first time since launch, but against a base so small that Samsung — the only meaningful Android tablet vendor — still faces 'quite small' absolute sales, per Digits.
Second-order effects
- Android's confirmed momentum on smartphones — major players shifting platforms and Quantcast showing it at 25% of US mobile web by late 2010 — pressures every handset OEM to add a tablet SKU, multiplying the number of vendors competing against the iPad in 2011.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, tablets replay the smartphone script where a single-vendor incumbent cedes unit share to a multi-OEM licensed OS — pushing Apple's defense onto ecosystem lock-in (apps, content) rather than device share alone, while component suppliers gain a second large tablet customer beyond Cupertino.
The trend: Google's licensed, multi-vendor Android model is beginning to do to the tablet market what it already did to smartphones: convert one vendor's category-defining lead into a fragmented share fight.