Android tablet growth outpaces market down under
But Apple's iPad is still very dominant
The iPad commands three-quarters of the Australia and New Zealand tablet market, so Apple doesn't have to worry about Android growth rates just yet.
Market watcher IDC released its local tablet sales figures this week. The numbers cover Q2.
Android tablet shipments into the region went up threefold quarter on quarter, while iPad shipments doubled. Unsurprisingly, then, Apple's market share fell.
IDC says some 420,000 fondleslabs shipped into the region during Q2, more than twice the Q1 total. Of those, 367,500 arrived in Australia.
Taking those numbers, that's 313,320 iPads in Q2, 156,660 in Q1. Androids went from 35,560 to 106,680 units. So that's three iPads sold for every Android tablet in Q2.
IDC reckons Android tablet units will hit 300,000 by the end of the year, but we're still looking at iPad shipments of 1.3m, pushing Apple's share down to 70 per cent, but still leaving it selling a heck of a lot of tablets.
Amazon's Android-based Kindle Fire may shake up the tablet market in the rest of the world, but it's unlikely to affect the Australian and New Zealand markets. Neither has an Amazon outlet of its own, and Amazon isn't yet shipping Fire outside of the US, the region from which it serves Kindles to regions that lack an Amazon online storefront.
Less certain is the effect of Apple's legal action against Samsung to prevent the Galaxy Tab 10.1 shipping in Australia. That may hinder Samsung sales, but may simply send buyers to other Android tablet makers, like Acer and Asus. ®
COMMENTS
The Electronics chain Dick Smith in New Zealand (and I would assume Australia) is an outlet for Amazon Kindles.
I also suspect some of the lack of non Apple tablet growth in NZ is that we tend to lag a long way behind in getting the Android ones.
