Apple’s iPad managed to grab 50.4 percent market share in the third quarter of 2012, which saw a total of 27.8 million total units shipped worldwide. Rounding out the top three tablet manufacturers were Samsung at 18.4 percent and Amazon at 9.0 percent, both pushing ahead with their Android tablet offerings.
It’s important to underline that we’re talking about shipments not sales here. Keeping that in mind, the latest estimates come from IDC , which summarized its findings in the following chart:
The tablet market grew 49.5 percent year-over-year, but only 6.7 percent when compared with the second quarter of 2012. Android shipments, led by Samsung and Amazon, surged during the quarter, at the expense of iPad’s market share.
Apple lost 9.3 percentage points between last quarter and the third quarter last year, or put another way, 15.1 percentage points when compared to its market share in the second quarter of this year (65.5 percent). Still, at 50.4 percent, the company commanded over half of the tablet shipments last quarter. It’s worth noting that Apple’s share could translate to a higher return since it’s the only company that reports actual sales, not just shipments. On the flipside, Apple’s drop translated into the remaining top five tablet vendors gaining share during last quarter.
Samsung did the best, thanks to its Galaxy Tab and Note 10.1 products. The Korean company shipped 5.1 million tablets worldwide in the third quarter of 2012, gaining 11.9 percentage points year-over-year.
Amazon, which did not have a tablet in the third quarter of last year, gained 4.2 percentage points from the second quarter of 2012. The company announced new 7-inch and 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD tablets late in the quarter, and began shipping the new 7-inch HD version (in addition to a refreshed version of the original 7-inch Fire) in mid-September. It’s worth noting that Amazon only shipped its new offerings in the US last quarter, although it expanded to five additional countries this quarter.
The top five tablet manufacturers list was rounded out by Asus and Lenovo. Asus’ growth was backed by strong shipments of its Google-branded Nexus 7 device , which allowed it to gain 4.8 percentage points year-over-year. Lenovo’s gains were driven by strong shipments in China, but it only managed to grab an additional 0.3 percentage points.
Android may have dominated smartphones last quarter , but iOS is still winning in the tablet space. Google’s platform is slowly cutting into Apple’s marketshare, however, and this trend doesn’t look like it’s going to stop anytime soon. Will the iPad Mini save the day? We’ll see next quarter.
Image credit: Adam Ciesielski
GAME opens OUYA pre-orders in the UK, as the Android-powered console starts shipping to backers
Pre-orders for OUYA , the Android-based gaming console that was successfully funded through an $8.5 million Kickstarter campaign, have opened up in the UK over at GAME .
A product page on the high-street retailer’s website shows the console, available for pre-order, at £99.99 . Additional controllers are also being sold for £39.99 each .
OUYA hasn’t confirmed any stockists for the UK yet, so it’s possible that GAME has done this pre-emptively. Even so, it shows an interest in the console from international retailers and bodes well both for its exposure and potential sales in the region.
The new indie hardware company has previously announced it will be partnering with Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop and Target in the United States. It will also be available in Canada from Amazona .
OUYA is shipping its new game console to Kickstarter backers today , so it won’t be long before we see an initial reaction to the interface, hardware and game catalog.
A public release has been slated for June, but it’s not set in stone and could change depending on various production issues. It means that if you’re interested in pre-ordering a console from GAME today, bear in mind that it could be at least a few months before it arrives at your door.
OUYA has promoted itself as a console for hackers and modders. This was extended yesterday after it partnered with Makerbot and published the 3D design files for the console’s case. With the template and various hardware specs in hand, it’s now possible for anyone with access to a 3D printer to create a customized console.
Although OUYA has been designed to compete with all of the current video game consoles, including the upcoming PlayStation 4 , its focus on indie titles will see it go head-to-head with GameStick in particular.
The tiny video game console was also funded through Kickstarter , closing at $647,658 earlier this year. It’s fair to say that OUYA will have a considerable headstart though, which is incredibly important given Microsoft’s inevitable reveal of the Xbox successor later this year.
Image Credit: OUYA
TELUS, Virgin Mobile and Bell open pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S4 in Canada
Canadian mobile network operators TELUS , Virgin Mobile and Bell have opened pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S4 today, confirming that consumers will receive the device on April 27 before it hits store shelves on May 3.
Signing up to a contract isn’t particularly cheap though. Samsung’s new flagship Android device will cost $199 on a three-year contract with TELUS, starting at $50 per month. Consumers can expect 1,000 minutes, 300MB of data and unlimited texts for that amount, although given that TELUS offers a 4G LTE service, that’s unlikely to last very long.
Upping the data cap to 600MB will set users back an additional $15, or 1GB for a total of $80 per month. Anything higher will cost consumers an extra two cents per megabyte, without exception.
TELUS also offers an unlimited talk and text plan for $100 per month, although it still only includes 5GB of data. That might be enough for the majority of its subscribers, but data-heavy Android users will be left bitterly disappointed.
The Samsung Galaxy S4, unveiled in March , is likely to be one of the most sought-after smartphones until the next iPhone or Nexus products are announced.
The device has a premium 5-inch 1080p display, set at an impressive 441 ppi. Under the hood is a quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A15 processor, bumped up by an additional quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7 chipset. That’s a whole lot of processing power.
The Galaxy S4 comes stocked with 16GB of internal storage, although that’s expandable via a microSD card, and runs on the latest version of Android (version 4.2.2) with Samsung’s TouchWiz skin slapped on top.
The device also has a mighty Li-Ion 2600 mAh battery, which should do a pretty decent job of counterbalancing the smartphone’s power-hungry processors, and 2GB of RAM handling multiple apps and tasks.
It will be available in two colors, “white frost” and “black mist”, although Samsung has also revealed that additional color options will follow alter this year.
Pre-orders for the device opened in the United Kingdom late last month , ahead of a public release on April 26.
Image Credit: DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images