A research group has raised estimates on the amount of tablet PCs that will be shipped in the next quarter. International Data Corp’s Worldwide Quarterly Media Tracker upped their projections to 53.5million under the pretence that Apple’s iPad 2 will continue to push the market along at a pace. The report stated that, “Apple’s iPad and the recently introduced iPad 2 continue to dominate the media tablet market, as other vendors have had a more difficult time finding market acceptance for their products.”
The earlier projection was for 50.4 million units to be sold, and research analyst Jennifer Song added, “Although media tablet sales were not as high as expected in 1Q11 due to slower consumer demand, overall economic conditions, and supply-chain constraints, we believe with the entrance of competitive new devices in second half of 2011, the market will sell close to 53 million units for the year and continue to grow long-term.”
Even though Apple is still leading the market with a huge 65% of the market, the others are catching up. Android manufacturers combined hold 34% of the market, the Google powered handsets taking over 8% of Apple’s market share from the last quarter. Android is showing that what happened in the smart phone market was not a one off and as the tablets get better, Apple’s share will continue to erode.
This could explain the company’s animosity towards their biggest competitor on the Android side, Samsung. With Apple still the cool brand to have in your hand, it will still take a massive shift for Android to continue overhauling their lead at the rate of knots that is currently happening. In terms of mobile gaming firms, the headline figure of 53.5million that will be sold this year is enough in itself to get them slightly moist
