While Google’s partners scramble to compete with Apple’s offering, the Cupertino company won’t have to worry about other companies threatening their grasp on the no. 1 position anytime soon – not till 2016 anyway. Gartner has reported that sales of iOS tablets are going to continue to lead the market up till 2016, which is something that Google isn’t too happy about we imagine.
The state of tablets is increasing at an amazing rate, with the research firm estimating sales of media tablets to reach 118.9 million units this year, which is a 98 percent increase over last year’s 60 million units.
“Despite PC vendors and phone manufacturers wanting a piece of the pie and launching themselves into the media tablet market, so far, we have seen very limited success outside of Apple with its iPad,” said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner. “As vendors struggled to compete on price and differentiate enough on either the hardware or ecosystem, inventories were built and only 60 million units actually reached the hands of consumers across the world. The situation has not improved in early 2012, when the arrival of the new iPad has reset the benchmark for the product to beat.”
This year, Gartner estimates that there will be around 73 million iOS slates sold, a stark contrast to their estimate for Android tablets which they estimate would reach around 38 million.
Source: Market Watch