Android tablets captured 22% of the market at the end of 2010

While Apple held 95% of the tactile tablets market at the end of the third quarter of 2010, their market share fell to 75% at the end of the year due to the arrival of numerous Android tablets.

Apple tablets market in 2010 thanks to their iPad, with this allowing them to take a super-dominant position in the market. But by the end of the year, numerous tactile tablets operating Android started to get released by international electronics groups – with this starting to tip the scales back towards the centre.

According to the research group Strategy Analytics, Apple went from controlling 95% of the market in the third quarter to 75% market share by the end of 2010 due to the arrival of numerous models running Android, notably Samsung’s Galaxy Tab which was heavily pushed by mobile carriers allowing it to ship more than 2 million units since its release.

Thanks to this, Android’s market share increased to 22.3% in the last quarter of 2010, with forecasts over the coming quarters seeing this swell thanks to numerous models to be presented at the CES 2011 show.


iOS and Android share the market
For 2010, Apple took firm control of the young tablets market with an 84.1% share, while Android, thanks to strong end of the year sales, managed to capture 13.1%. This left very little place for other operating systems (we are notably thinking of Windows 7), with a presence of around 2.3%.

The markets dynamics are starting to evolve, even if Apple and their iPad tablet should still largely dominate the market in 2011, with a swing back towards the centre anticipated from 2012. Like with Smartphone’s, time is on Android’s side to increase their presence compared to iOS and other platforms (MeeGo, WebOS...).