More Brits ditch Apple tablets for Amazon, Google, Samsung kit
But iPad Mini is still the UK adults' top-rated slate
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Almost a fifth of the UK’s adult population now owns a fondleslab, and while most of them have a tablet with a bitten fruit icon on the back, Apple’s dominance is slipping.
So says YouGov, a pollster, which regularly asks Brits about their technology purchases. During the first three months of 2012, 73 per cent of British tablet owners had an Apple product. A year on, Apple fans accounted for only 63 per cent of all slate users.
No prizes for guessing the brands that have benefited from this relative decline: Amazon, Google and Samsung.
Google’s share of tablet punters has gone up eight percentage points, Samsung’s six and Amazon’s five. Neither Amazon nor Google had a tablet out in the UK during Q1 2012, of course. Samsung did, but it could only grab four per cent of the market, according to YouGov’s numbers.
Apple’s Q1 2012 share combined with Samsung’s doesn’t total 100 per cent, so there were clearly a fair few also-rans being bought back then - accounting for 23 per cent of tablet ownership, according to YouGov’s numbers. In Q1 2013, that "others" figure had fallen to 14 per cent, so it’s not just Apple that is suffering at the hands of Amazon, Google and Samsung.
From zeroes to heroes: Kindle and Nexus. Graph via YouGov
But the shift away from no-name Android tablets imported from China toward big-name tablets imported from China - as opposed to Apple-branded kit imported from China - does show why Brits now think Android slates are just as good as the iOS alternatives.
According to YouGov’s poll, punters think Samsung’s tablets are as good as Apple’s iPad, though they still think the iPad Mini is better than all other tablets “across eight of the nine quality attributes” YouGov used to help folk rate their slates.
Similarly, the Nexus 7 gets more plaudits than rival offerings from Samsung, and more than Apple’s 10-inch iPad too.
YouGov said that over 18 per cent of the UK adult population - more than eight million grown-ups - now own a tablet, up from the five per cent recorded in Q4 2012. ®
COMMENTS
Highly Rated
Re: @Steve
I would have to disagree, the android ecosystem is now very well integrated. When I picked up my Nexus 7 i just logged into my google account, it setup my contacts from my phone and setup all my apps, it even setup my wireless from all taken from my HTC Desire C, I can even go to the google play website and download apps to my devices easily, not sure what more integration you may need?
> They don't allow porn on those things.
That's only because to the fanbois an iPad is porn, nothing else is required.
Re: @Steve
I would also say that the android system is well connected. Even using my Galaxy Note, I can plug in USB devices (flash sticks, HDDs, usb hubs, keyboards, oh and HDMI projectors).
I can even plug it into my camera (Canon 7D, 5DIII), control all settings, see the live-view display and take photos with it. By contrast, the Apple camera connection kit can't read from CF cards (used to but a firmware update a while back turns off the power when you try), and the "camera connection" just about manages to read a JPG file from the camera, but nothing else. With Android, I can happily copy the photos (JPG or RAW)onto the phone, the phones SD card, or upload by FTP / SMB to the web or my local server and use them in any application I want. Oh, and the android cost? £1 for USB host cable, £2.50 for the very nice remote control app.
@Dana W
No, liking Apple is still tolerable. What gets to the nerve are fanboys that react on every headline that implies negative news for Apple with defensive reflexes.
He got his downvotes for posting without reading the article.
Errr, No...
I own both...
From the time I brought an iPad I realised how bad it was, in the end I found it was only useful for games...
at the same time I already owned an android phone, I expected the iPad to be at least as good as my phone, it was not... it was so locked down it was un-believable, no file transfers, video had to be PRECISELY converted...
Now I own an ipad, a Samsung Note 10.1 and an android phone... The android devices are just so much better.... (although I admit there are a couple of iOS only games I would like converted to android, and its purely down to the software companies as they are simple games...)
