Apple tablets will remain the market leader till 2016, albeit at a decreasing market share, Annette Zimmermann. Principal Analyst, Consumer Markets & Technology at Gartner Deutschland GmbH, told Gulf News.
She said Apples’s market share will decline and Android will be the second biggest player while Windows will become the third largest eco-system at around 10 per cent market share by 2016.
Amazon’s Kindle Fire, the second-best-selling tablet, has sold about seven million units; Barnes and Noble has sold about five million Nook tablets; and Google has sold about three million Nexus 7 tablets, according to Forrester.
According to Rhoda Alexander, director, tablet and monitor research for IHS iSuppli, the arrival of smaller iPad will turbocharge the market for 7-inch tablets, helping the market to approximately double in 2012 and 2013.
Global sales of tablets in the 7-inch size range are expected to boom by about 100 per cent this year to 34 million units, up from 17 million in 2011. Sales will nearly double again in 2013, rising 96 per cent to 67 million.
“The bigger market is definitely for the 10-inch tablets while at the same time there is a market for 7-inch,” Zimmermann said.
The 7.x-inch tablets will account for 28 per cent of all tablets in 2012, up from 24 per cent in 2011. In 2013, its share will rise to 33 per cent.
“We predict that Apple will successfully position the smaller iPad as a device that will be attractive and easy to adopt for both new and returning customers. This will spur rapid sales growth and provide tough competition for other companies contending in this size range.”
Alexander sees the demand for 7.x-inch products to be particularly popular in Asia, where interest in a smaller version of the iPad has been strong.
