Gartner Shows Android Tablets Overtake iPad On World Market

This week the folks at Gartner have released their worldwide tablet sales charts for the full year of 2013, showing Android on the rise. This is the first year since the iPad was released that Gartner has shown Apple to be selling fewer tablets than the entire Android ecosystem. Back in 2012, Android had just 45.8% of the tablet market while iOS (with the iPad only) had 52.8% of the market.

These findings suggest that all three of the top operating systems on tablets are growing, but that it's Android that's growing quickest. While Microsoft's sales quadrupled between 2012 and 2013, they've still got just 2.1% of the market. This is good news for Windows 8 and Windows RT, but still shows the group to be lagging behind the rest.

You'll find Apple to be growing by 9 million units between the years, now selling a cool 70.4 million iPads over the course of 2013. This rate of growth hasn't been kind to Apple in the overall market share, however, as Android's growth in tablet sales has gone up well over double.

With 53.3 million units sold in 2012, Android tablets are now up well above any competitor with 121 million units sold in 2013. This can be attributed largely to the rise of low-cost Android devices and the increased attraction to the well-stocked Google Play app store.

While in the past, Apple held sway over the market with their omnipotent push of the iPad as the only tablet worth having, here Android is winning with a war of attrition.

VIA: Android Community