iPad Market Share Slipped to 54.7% in 4Q11

Apple's iPad market share slipped to 54.7% in 4Q11 down from 61.5% in 3Q11, according to IDC. The drop is largely due to the introduction of the Amazon Kindle which reached 16.8% market share in 4Q11 and increased awareness of other non-Apple tablets.

"Amazon's widely-reported entry into the media tablet market with a $199, 7-inch product seemed to raise consumers' awareness of the category worldwide despite the fact that the Fire shipped almost exclusively in the U.S. in the fourth quarter," said Tom Mainelli, research director, Mobile Connected Devices. "As a result, products across the pricing spectrum sold well, including everything from Apple's premium-priced iPads (which start at $499) to Pandigital's line of Android-based, entry-level tablets (which start at $120). The success of market leader Apple was particularly noteworthy, as the company's shipment total for the quarter represents an increase of 110.5% from 4Q10."

IDC notes that BlackBerry slipped from 1.1% to 0.7% and HP's webOS dropped from 5% to 0% in 4Q11.


"As the sole vendor shipping iOS products, Apple will remain dominant in terms of worldwide vendor unit shipments," Mainelli said. "However, the sheer number of vendors shipping low-priced, Android-based tablets means that Google's OS will overtake Apple's in terms of worldwide market share by 2015. We expect iOS to remain the revenue market share leader through the end of our 2016 forecast period and beyond."

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