So the analysts say that the iPhone 5 has not managed to garner as much attention among the consumers. Close on the heels of this update is more bad news for Apple. Turns out the third quarter of this year saw the sales of Samsung and Amazon tablets gaining significant market share, as consumers put their iPad purchase plans on hold until Apple brought out new devices.
IDC estimates report that Apple’s market share among tablets dipped from 65.5% down to 50.4% in the third quarter, while Samsung’s share grew to 18.4% and Amazon accounted for around 9% of the market. For Samsung, this is the first time since the launch of the first iPad in 2010 that the company commanded such a high share of the market. Aggressive marketing campaigns for the Galaxy Note 10.1 and Galaxy Tabs sure have paid off for Samsung, as the numbers show. In Amazon’s case, the demand for newly introduced Kindle Fire tablets boosted this growth. Asus, the producer of Google Nexus 7, also saw a big jump in its market share – all the way up to 8.6% from just 3.8%.
However, IDC has indicated that this shift may not be permanent as the iPad Mini could help Apple pull back some of its customers and regain the lost market share. The only drawback could be the steep pricing of their 7-inch offering in the tablet market. The high price puts the iPad Mini all by itself as competitors have already started offering price cuts on their models. Barnes & Noble brought down the price of the Nook Tablet to $159 for the 8GB model and $179 for its 16GB model.
To make matters more difficult for Apple, Microsoft entered into the tablet space with its own offering, the Surface, and we wait to see what other hardware partners of Microsoft will bring out with the latest Windows 8 and Windows RT. It just might manage to create a niche of its own in the tablet space – giving consumers a cheaper option to laptops with similar computing prowess.
