A new report out Taiwan this morning states that Apple will continue its dominance in the worldwide tablet computer market with its iPad, but that other firms making tablets powered by Google Inc.'s Android system might pick up sales in the 7-inch segment. Yet even with a pick-up in sales in 7 and 10" tablets, the report continues to show us that the current block of Android OEM's will still be eating the iPad's market crumbs for some time to come.
The Hong Kong-based brokerage firm CLSA said it expects the tablet market to reach 108 million units in 2012 and 148 million units in 2013, with Apple holding 63 percent and 50 percent market shares, respectively.
However, CLSA's estimates of the market scale do not factor in Apple's anticipated "iPad mini," a smaller and cheaper model that is expected to be launched later this year.
Nicolas Baratte, head of technology research at CLSA, said Apple will continue to dominate the 10-inch tablet market with an 81 percent market share in 2012 and 72 percent in 2013, but he added that 7-inch Android tablets are going to take off.
"Android apps for tablets, productivity tools, are still behind the iPad's in both quantity and quality but catching up," he added. "As such, Android Tablets volumes could become larger than Apple's iPad by 2015, as has happened for smartphones."
What matters is sticking with shorter term forecasting that could be realistically measured. Who knows what's going to happen in 2015 or 2016. Breakthroughs from either side of the market could strike at any moment. So for 2012 and 2013, Apple's iPad will remain to be king, with the Android camp eating their left over market crumbs.
