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Tuesday, March 13, 2012
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Tablet Shipments Outpace Fourth Quarter Targets
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Worldwide media tablet shipments into sales channels rose by 56.1% on a sequential basis in the fourth calendar
quarter of 2011 (4Q11) to 28.2 million units worldwide, according to IDC Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet and
eReader Tracker.
That represents an increase of 155% from the fourth
quarter of 2010. The market experienced
stronger-than-expected growth across many regions and at
many price points, leading to a full-year 2011 total of
68.7 million units. Based upon the markets' strong 2011
finish, and the clear demand expected in 2012, IDC has
increased its 2012 forecast to 106.1 million units, up
from its previous forecast of 87.7 million units.
Despite an impressive debut by Amazon, which shipped 4.7
million Kindle Fires into the market, Apple continued to
see strong growth in the quarter, shipping 15.4 million
units in 4Q11, up from 11.1 million units in 3Q11. That
represents a 54.7% worldwide market share (down from
61.5% in 3Q11). Amazon's shipment total put the company
in second place with 16.8% of the worldwide market.
Third-place Samsung grew its share from 5.5% in 3Q11 to
5.8% in 4Q11. Despite shipping more units, including its
new Nook Tablet, Barnes & Noble saw its worldwide market
share slip to 3.5% (down from 4.5%). Pandigital rounded
out the top five, grabbing 2.5% of the market, down from
2.9% the previous quarter.
"Amazon's widely-reported entry into the media tablet
market with a $199, 7-inch product seemed to raise
consumers' awareness of the category worldwide despite
the fact that the Fire shipped almost exclusively in the
U.S. in the fourth quarter," said Tom Mainelli, research
director, Mobile Connected Devices. "As a result,
products across the pricing spectrum sold well, including
everything from Apple's premium-priced iPads (which start
at $499) to Pandigital's line of Android-based,
entry-level tablets (which start at $120). The success of
market leader Apple was particularly noteworthy, as the
company's shipment total for the quarter represents an
increase of 110.5% from 4Q10."
As predicted, Android made some strong gains in 4Q11,
thanks in large part to the Amazon Kindle Fire's success
(the Fire runs a custom version of Google's Android OS).
Android grew its market share from 32.3% in 3Q11 to 44.6%
in 4Q11. As a result, iOS slipped from 61.6% market share
to 54.7%; Blackberry slipped from 1.1% to 0.7%. WebOS,
which owned 5% of the worldwide market in 3Q11, dropped
to zero in 4Q11. Looking ahead, IDC expects Android to
continue to grow its share of the market at the expense
of iOS.
"As the sole vendor shipping iOS products, Apple will
remain dominant in terms of worldwide vendor unit
shipments," Mainelli said. "However, the sheer number of
vendors shipping low-priced, Android-based tablets means
that Google's OS will overtake Apple's in terms of
worldwide market share by 2015. We expect iOS to remain
the revenue market share leader through the end of our
2016 forecast period and beyond."
Despite the strong growth of media tablet shipments,
ePaper-based eReaders also experienced
stronger-than-expected growth in the fourth quarter. That
growth occurred thanks to sharp price cuts in established
markets such as the U.S. and Canada, as well as
increasing shipments in regions outside of North America.
In 4Q11 the worldwide total increased to 10.7 million
units, up from 6.5 million units in 3Q11. That represents
a quarter-over-quarter improvement of 64.6% and a
year-over-year improvement of 64.3%. IDC expects growth
to continue in 2012 as major players such as Amazon,
Barnes & Noble, and Kobo look to expand into new
international markets. |
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