Android Boasts 41% Share Of Q3 Global Tablet Shipments, Sets Record

Research by Strategy Analytics via its Tablet & Touchscreen Strategies service, more commonly known as TTS, shows that Android received a record 41-percent share of global tablet shipments in the third-quarter of 2012. Apple, while still boasting 57-percent of the global market share, experienced a statistically significant drop in sales. This shift was caused for multiple reasons, not the least of which is the recently-announced iPad mini.

Total global tablet shipments in Q3 hit 24.7 million, which is a 43-percent increase from 2011 Q3's grand total of 17.2 million. Apple shipped a total of 14 million iPads, resulting in a drop to 57-percent from last year's 64-percent. While overall tablet sales have decreased due to a poor economy, Apple experienced a double-whammy due to consumers holding off on buying iPads in anticipation of the recently-announced iPad mini.

Apple's sales slump was the edge Android needed to gain a record footing in the market. Said Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, "Android captured a record 41-percent share of global tablet shipments in Q3 2012, jumping from 29-percent a year earlier. Global Android tablet shipments doubled annually to 10.2 million units. No single Android vendor comes close to Apple in volume terms at the moment, but the collective weight of dozens of hardware partners, such as Asus, Samsung and Nook, is helping Google's Android platform to register a growing presence in tablets."

The TTS research also revealed some other tablet-related data, the most relevant of which is perhaps the massive drop reported in global tablet shipments. While tablet sales grew 43-percent in Q3 of this year, it is a significant drop from the 289-percent annual growth in Q2 2011. For its part in the market, Microsoft snagged 2-percent of the global tablet shares this past quarter, which is expected to jump with the release of its Surface RT tablet.

[via Strategy Analytics]