The tablet market continues to surprise. We are talking about a segment that a year and a half ago did not even exist, and that started with the Apple iPad. It is true that there were already other devices, today categorized as slates , but it was not until the arrival of the attractive apple terminal that other firms launched their proposals, always on the border between mobile phones, laptops and the total multimedia platform..
Such is the constant surprise caused by this market that the forecasts for this market are constantly being revised. The last to be modified have been those of the IDC consultancy, which although it raised sales of 53.5 million units worldwide for this 2011, the latest forecasts play upwards and stand at 62.5 million. And because? Simple: a whopping 13.6 million tablets were sold in the second quarter of the year.
This figure represents almost 89 percent more than what had been contemplated, and anticipates that the market for tablets will grow by 303.8 in the annual forecasts. This data confirms the excellent health of this segment, which is still led by the Apple terminal, although the competition is getting closer and closer, especially represented by Android tablets (either version 2.2 FroYo or 3.0 Honeycomb).
In total, 68.3 percent of the tablets sold worldwide had the apple logo on the back. In other words, 9.3 million iPads ended up in the hands of as many customers. The first quarter of the year, as it emerged in April, was also the lead for Apple with 65.7 percent of the market share, a slight growth that could be attributed to the feverish enthusiasm that produced the launch of the iPad 2 at the end March, added to the price for the first edition.
However, the competition is pushing hard. Android devices and RIM's PlayBook are the main rivals in this regard. The device of the BlackBerry family was released with a quota of almost five percent, while the terminals that work with the Google system took 26.8 percent of the market. Again, it should be remembered that some terminals in this section, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 had not yet reached the market, although there were others, such as the HTC Flyer or the Motorola Xoom.
