Pew poll puts Android at 48 percent of 2012 tablet market

Apple's dominance of the tablet market may be on the wan, as Android-based tablets are said to make up nearly half the market. This according to a Pew poll out <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/269560==http://www.journalism.org/analysis_report/device_ownership" rel='nofollow'>recently</a> showing that, among US tablet owners, 48 percent own a tablet running some version of Google's Android operating system. This latest figure represents a considerable loosening of Apple's grip on the tablet sector, and it does not yet take into account a number of other devices that may loosen that grip even more.<br><br>Between July 16 and August 7 of this year, the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism asked 1,096 US adults about their tablets. Among tablet owners, 52 percent said they owned an Apple iPad. Twenty-one percent of respondents said they owned a Kindle Fire from Amazon. The rest of Android's 48 percent share was made up of an assortment of other manufacturers, with Samsung's Galaxy Tab the next largest contender at eight percent.

The Kindle Fire's share among consumers is particularly notable, as it matches almost exactly <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/269561==http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/08/30/company.says.tablet.has.22.percent.of.us.market/" rel='nofollow'>the figure given</a> by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos earlier this year. In introducing Amazon's new line of Kindles and Kindle Fire devices, Bezos claimed that the Kindle Fire had captured 22 percent of the US tablet market.

The survey was conducted before the introduction of Google's Nexus 7 or Amazon's new Kindle Fire HD, <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/269562==http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/07/13/sams.club.staples.out.of.stock/" rel='nofollow'>both of which</a> have reportedly been seeing <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/269563==http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/09/26/new.kindle.fire.accounts.for.11.percent.of.kindle. traffic/" rel='nofollow'>brisk sales</a>.


The numbers from this newest poll show a considerable reversal from last year, which found Apple with an 81 percent share of the tablet market, compared to 15 percent for Android and four percent for other manufacturers. An earlier PEJ poll found that tablet owners make up 22 percent of the US adult population, with another three percent regularly using a tablet owned by someone else in their home.

Apple's iPad still accounts for a sizable majority of <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/269564==http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/08/15/survey.does.not.yet.account.for.googles.nexus.7.ta blet/" rel='nofollow'>all tablets shipped</a>, but the new figures -- should they accurately reflect reality in the US -- would seem to indicate that Android is finally beginning to catch up in the tablet space.

Android's steps toward closing the gap could be due in part to customer loyalty to the operating system. The poll also found that the majority of iPad owners also have an iPhone, and the majority of Android tablet owners had an Android phone.

I don't think so...

I'd love to see the data sources and actual data on which they based this report, because it certainly doesn't match my own personal observations - limited though they may be.

This has never been nor I imagine ever will be a concern for Apple which concentrates on actual sales as opposed to market share. Android as a platform may equal and probably surpass iOS in tablets as it has in smartphones, but none of the individual companies selling Android will match Apple's sales figures in units. What good does it do HTC to be a part Android's commanding market share if its sales share is 3% of that?

It's over for Apple. Google Android OS and its Asian Partners are killing the iPhone already. Next iPad. By end of the year iPad will be down the 20% marketshare range....

What nonsense. These are US numbers only and the Kindle devices are not sold outside the US. Further, more than likely, the Kindle devices sold were replacement or add on units to Amazon's already large market of Kindle ereader owners, and not that many net new customers by comparison. The Samsung numbers tell all, a mere 8%. Google on the other hand is trying to buy the market by taking the Amazon route of loosing money on every single device sold. Not a sustainable business model.

Please, go get yourself a real education. Android devices are doing so well because they feed into all carriers and all price points. Many of the sales of Android phones are cheaply made inferior devices that lack the horsepower of a phone that can compete with the iPhone, run an outdated version of the Android OS and CAN'T BE UPGRADED. This is like saying Chevy has overtaken BMW as the top car in the world. You are trying to compare apples to oranges. Let them take the bottom of the market to inflate their "market share", meanwhile, the iPhone and the iPad are still the best selling products in their respective categories IN THE WORLD, bar none.

As an expat living in China, I can assure you that the number one desired smartphone here is still the iPhone, and for tablets, the iPad. Even the better restaurants in the mid tier city I live in are using iPads for menus and order taking by the servers, not some inexpensive android POS. This trend is not about to change anytime soon.

Further, when you look at surveys regarding current users and which type / brand of device you plan to buy next, more Android users plan to switch to Apple devices than the other way around. Bottom feeding does not make a successful brand factoring in things like customer satisfaction, performance, functionality, that little thing called profitability, etc...

Ironic, that the biggest Android device is the Amazon Fire, and Google is not earning any revenue from that version of an Android Tablet.

Now we know what happened to all the Apple-hating Wintel folks.

They migrated to Android so that they could continue the 'it's over Apple" spiel.

As to the Pew data? The sample was too low or skewed. Somebody needed a PR bump so out came the "data."

Simple as that.

-Leo

Thanks for proving my point. At this pace, it doesn't matter who has the better device. Android is like a Tsunami, its just about ready to wipe iOS/Apple off the face of the planet. I know it hurts Apple Fanbois, but thats just reality. Apple is losing the legal battle all over the world and soon it will lose in the US also. It's already happening... Don't feel bad you guys. You had a good run!

Wait until iPad Mini is out, it will crush Droid Pads once and for all.

This seems excessively high. Eric Schmidt said that tablets account for less than1% of android activations. iPads were said to be 90% of tablet sales in January. Now it's half the market?

This was published all over the Web on Sept 12, 2012:
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An analysis of traffic from tablet computers to more than 1,200 websites found that 98.1 per cent of the traffic came from the Apple iPad.

The second most popular tablet for web browsing was the Samsung Galaxy Tab - in all its models - which accounts for 1.53 per cent of traffic. The Motorola Xoom has 0.21 per cent, ahead of the Amazon Kindle Fire on 0.11 per cent.

The study also found that the iPad has a 54.5 per cent share of all web traffic from mobile devices, ahead of the iPhone, which accounts for 19.05 per cent.

The figures, compiled by Onswipe, found that Apple's iOS has a 75.12 per cent share of all mobile web traffic, with Android second on 22.3 per cent.
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So tell me again how Andoid tablets are taking over. What a joke.