After IDC’s recent report on the projected 2013 tablet shipment market — and 2017 projections — I was left scratching my head. IDC thinks Android will ship on more tablets this year (thanks to smaller, 7-inch or so form factors) than Apple will ship iPads. Android will nab 48.8 percent of the market to Apple’s 46 percent by year’s end.
Lots of bloggers and tech press personas have been touting this as a watershed moment, the tipping point where Android finally exerts dominance over the iPad, but I’m unimpressed. Why? Why isn’t Android doing far better than this? Seriously. Android has the backing of Google, the uber-duper Google. Plus, Android is used on tablets produced by several high-quality manufacturers, including the rising star Samsung. Not to mention used on plenty of cheap tablets, too, as if Amazon’s Kindle Fire isn’t inexpensive enough.
Then take all the low-cost Android-based smartphones that are supposedly taking over the world . . . shouldn’t there be a halo effect? Apparently not: By 2017, IDC is projecting that Android will only own 46 percent of the tablet market vs. iOS’s 43.5 percent share.
So Android tablet growth, according to IDC at least, has essentially hit its tablet shipment growth rate peak?
Sounds to me that maybe there’s something going on here where all of Android’s supposed advantages aren’t so strong after all. I was seriously expecting Apple to drop down into a lower percentage of shipments — not quite back into underdog days, but still. For more, check out my column on the lackluster Android horde at MacNewsWorld.
