It’s statistics time again, as IDC released its data on tablet shipments for Q4 2011. The figures seem to favour Apple, with 54.7% of the market, although that’s actually a decrease of the share, down from 61.5% in the previous quarter. The decline is due to the strong adoption of the $199 Amazon Kindle Fire tablet, that reached 16.8% of the market in that quarter.
Amazon’s 7 inch slate conquered the hearts and wallets of customers and hugely increased the share of Android on the tablet market. And keep in mind that this device shipped almost exclusively in the USA in Q4, according to Tom Mainelli, research director, Mobile Connected Devices. Meanwhile, Android as a whole gained market too, from 32.3% to 44.6% and together iOS + Android make out 99.3% of the tablet market. We’ll see how much of that Windows 8 eats in a year or two.
RIM’s BB PlayBook OS reached 0.7%, while HP’s webOS is not even in the stats, as the TouchPad was discontinued. IDC has a predictions saying that Android will surpass iOS in market share by 2015, but Apple will keep dominating in revenue through the end of 2016 forecast period. In case you’re wondering, IDC’s data measures shipments on the sales channel and not to end users, so it’s not 100% accurate, since there are many tablets still on the store shelves. Apple always claims that it sells everything it makes, so it’s the Android devices that are probably on the shelves right now…
