Android slides while Apple shines in tablet wars

Market watcher IDC reveals a 'disappointing' first quarter for tablets and e-readers

IDC's worldwide quarterly tracker of media tablet and e-reader sales has recorded a "disappointing" Q1 for the category, with collapsing Android sales offsetting ongoing strength from the Apple marque.

"A steep drop in shipments of Android-based tablets offset a strong quarter from Apple and caused the media tablet market to miss projections for the first quarter," the analyst stated.

"While IDC predicted a sharp seasonal slowdown of minus 34 per cent from the previous quarter's record-breaking 28.2 million units, the actual decline was slightly steeper at minus 38.4 per cent."

The data is preliminary, but indicated that total worldwide media tablet shipments for the quarter reached 17.4 million units in the first quarter of 2012, 1.2 million units below IDC's forecast. However, the total still represents 120 per cent growth year over year, up from 7.9 million units in Q1 of 2011.

Tom Mainelli, research director for mobile connected devices at IDC, said in a statement that Apple resasserted its dominance this quarter.

"All but a few Android vendors saw their numbers drop precipitously after posting big gains during the holiday buying season," he wrote. "Apple's move to position the iPad as an all-purpose tablet, instead of just a content consumption device, is resonating with consumers as well as educational and commercial buyers."

Mainelli added that the retention of the cheaper iPad2 in the market despite launching a new version also seems to be helping sales.

IDC found that Apple sold 11.8 million iPads in Q1, down from 15.4 million in Q4 of 2011. Its global share of the market expanded from 54.7 per cent to 68 per cent quarter on quarter.

Amazon's share declined to just over four per cent, meaning it slid back to third place behind Samsung. Lenovo has taken the number four position.

Mainelli added that Android vendors must have "notably lower" price points if they are to compete with Apple. The impact of Microsoft's offering, not expected until the fourth quarter of this year, is yet to be determined, he said.

"[However] we expect a new, larger-screened device from Amazon at a typically aggressive price point, and Google will enter the market with an inexpensive, co-branded Asus tablet designed to compete directly on price with Amazon's Kindle Fire.

"The search giant's new tablet will run a pure version of Android, whereas the Fire runs Amazon's own forked version of the OS that cuts Google out of the picture," Mainelli noted.