Apple's iPad losing 10% market share to Android since fourth quarter of 2010: Report

Washington, Jan 27(ANI): Apple's iPad has lost over 10 percent of its market to rival Android tablets since the fourth quarter of 2010, a new report has said.

Research firm Strategy Analytics' report found that Android sales rose to 39.1 percent during the most recent fourth quarter from 29.0 percent a year ago, but iPad sales plummeted to 57.6 percent from 68.2 percent in the same period.

Apple shipped 15.4 million iPads during the recent quarter while Android makers shipped 10.5 million tablets, tripling the 3.1 million figure shipped a year ago, The Los Angeles Times reports.

The report also noted that global tablet shipments rose to 66.9 million units in 2011, nearly quadrupling the 18.6 million shipped in 2010.

The number of "shipped" devices do not always represent final consumer sales accurately, especially when tablet makers overestimate the demand for their products.

But Strategy Analytics' Neil Mawston said the number of tablets shipped in this case were a fair representation of sales to customers.

He said that the Android's popularity was mainly driven by Amazon and Samsung tablets

"Android is so far proving relatively popular with tablet manufacturers despite nagging concerns about fragmentation of Android's operating system, user-interface and app store ecosystem," the report said.

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook, however, denied that the emergence of new lower-cost tablets had affected iPad sales.

"I looked at the data, particularly in the U.S., on a weekly basis after Amazon launched the Kindle Fire, and I wouldn't-in my view there wasn't an obvious effect on the numbers plus or minus," Cook said. (ANI)