iOS tablet

Apple’s iPad will continue to dominate the “media tablet” market for years to come, research firm Gartner said on Monday. While Google’s Android platform is expected to gain market share rapidly as iOS’ share declines over the next five years, Gartner still sees iOS as owning the largest share in the tablet market five years from now. According to the firm’s latest figures, Apple’s iPad tablets accounted for 83.9% of the market in 2010 while Android tablets — namely Samsung’s Galaxy Tab — held a 14.2% share. In 2011, Gartner expects the iPad’s market share to slip to 68.7% while Android’s share climbs to 19.9%, and then in 2015, Android will rise to account for 38.6% of the market. At that time, Gartner expects Apple’s iPad to account for 47.1% of the 294 million tablets sold, meaning Gartner expects Apple so sell nearly 140 million iPads in 2015. A few other items of note according to the firm’s forecast: RIM’s QNX-based tablets will make up 10% of media tablets sold in 2015, HP’s webOS will only have a 3% market share in 2015, and the figures in this report do not include sales of Windows-based tablets as they do not fit Gartner’s criteria for “media tablets,” which run a lightweight OS. Hit the break for Gartner’s full press release. More →