Apple’s iPad continues to dominate market in 1Q’2012-ABI Research

[Bapun]

Apple continued to lead the market with nearly 65% of worldwide units and surpassed 67 million cumulative shipments in its first eight quarters of availability, according to ABI research.

The media tablet market shipped 18.2 million devices in 1Q’2012, which represents a 185% YoY gain and a 33% sequential loss in shipments. Apple’s 11.8 million iPad shipments were spurred by the launch of a third generation lineup and price reduction on iPad 2 models, while Samsung’s 1.1 million shipments returned the vendor to the number two spot after Amazon’s Kindle Fire shipments fizzled entering 2012.

The research further said that iPad can’t claim the highest mobile broadband (3G/4G) attach rate for media tablets, though Apple retains its title of shipping the most 3G enabled tablets by outpacing the number two competitor by a factor of eight.

“The majority of iPad buyers continue to be satisfied with Wi-Fi wireless coverage,” adds Orr. The leading model shipments and the ongoing challenges mobile operators face in convincing iPad owners to even try the mobile broadband connectivity once are expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

“A pattern similar to smartphones is also occurring in tablets,” says Jeff Orr, group director, consumer research. “Apple and Samsung have demonstrated staying power while other tablet vendors ebb and flow like the tide.” Only two leading branded tablet OEMs RIM (233%) and Lenovo (107%) bucked the downward first quarter shipment trends, while Taiwan’s ASUS remained flat sequentially from 4Q’2011. Several vendors, including Dell, HP, and LG are currently retooling tablet portfolios for mid year launches of Android 4.0 along with the much anticipated Windows 8 slates debuting later in 2012.

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