The Apple iPad will continue to maintain a strong grip on the tablet market in 2011 according to new data from Canaccord Genuity. Canaccord estimates that the iPad will be responsible for two-thirds of all tablets sold during the year. “We anticipate very strong sales of the iPad 2 for the holiday quarter, and we are modeling iPad units ramping from 11.1 million units in the September quarter to 14.0 million units in the December quarter,” Canaccord Genuity research analyst T. Michael Walkley wrote in a research note. While the analyst expects iPad sales to nearly triple from 2010 to 2011, he still sees Apple’s market share sliding as an increasing number of competitive offerings hit the market. Read on for more.
Apple’s share of the tablet market last year was 82% according to Walkley’s numbers, when the Samsung Galaxy Tab was the iPad’s only real competition. This year, the analyst sees Apple’s market share dipping to 65%. Moving into 2012, Canaccord’s data suggests that Apple’s slide will slow despite increased competition from Amazon, Asus and other Android-tablet builders such as Samsung and HTC. Those tablet makers will mostly compete with one another as opposed to Apple, Walkley noted.
“While new entrants such as Amazon could disrupt the completive dynamics into holiday sales, we view low-priced 7-inch models as a threat to other Android OEMs rather than to the iPad,” Walkley argued. “As such, given our updated iPad estimates, we anticipate Apple will command roughly 65 percent of the tablet units sold into the channel during C2011. However, we believe Apple’s sell-through share of the tablet market will exceed 75 percent during C2011.”
