What do you think of when you hear the word “tablet”? For most it would be Apple or more specifically the iPad. When the iPad was released in 2010 it quickly gained popularity amongst the masses. Since then the market share held by Apple’s iPad has been increasing steadily.
While it is a widely known fact that the iPad (one, two, or “new”) is immensely popular, we here at Chitika Insights wondered how we could quantify just how popular these tablets are by digging into our network data. Our results were quite interesting, though not very surprising.
In conducting this analysis, we queried our vast ad network for impressions stemming from a tablet of any sort. From there we sorted our data into categories of the various tablet devices. As we had hypothesized, the iPad was overwhelmingly dominant versus the competition.
Based off of impressions across our network, the iPad accounted for 94.64% of all tablet based traffic. This is impressive in and of itself but to put this number into perspective, the next closest competitor, the Samsung Galaxy tablet, boasts a lack luster market share of 1.22%. Coming in last, in respect to traffic share, was the Barnes and Noble Nook with a meager 0.53% traffic share. In defense of the Nook, it is used primarily as an e-reader, with the capabilities of a tablet.
Going forward the competition is going to be hard pressed to find a way to overthrow the seemingly omnipotent Apple. Not only do they offer a great product they have the undying devotion of their enthusiasts. Thus far Apple’s iPad offering has been able to thwart any attempt by competitors to develop a rival (or even equivalent product). Apple produces a product that is both aesthetically pleasing and technologically robust.
It will be interesting to see what the future holds for both Apple and the other market players. Historically speaking, new tablet products have yet to be a panacea. Increasing market share will be imperative for all tablet producers in the future if they want to remain competitive. The tablet has become an increasingly popular computing device and it seems evident that this trend will be persistent in the future.
With a flourishing middle class in China and an increasing appetite for quasi-luxury goods overall in the region, Asia will be a hot market for tablets in the future. Last year tablet sales in six South East Asian countries were $962 million. What is more, that same region has a penchant for Android operating systems; this could be big for tablet producers (sans Apple), though the iPad remains immensely popular across all corners of the globe. Experts at research group Gartner believe that Apple will sell 148m iPad’s in the year 2015.
I think when it’s 94 to 1, it’s pretty a death at one end of the spectrum … while “research” companies insist that 40% Android shipped is a market share number, this shows that either a) androids are simply used as paperweight on a desk or b) they are sitting in the channel & backrooms. Sounds like B … Or like the drop in Kindle sales – people may have bought an android as a gift but clearly a huge % were returned. The research companies who measure POS need a math upgrade to the computer age where interviewing a few thousand people do not cut it anymore.
The web browsing experience on any android tablets I’ve tried is just woeful. Jumpy scrolling on complex pages, keyboard / text selection issues, memory usage issues. I think they’re mostly just not pleasant to use over a PC or Mac for browsing. The iPad is mostly a delight for browsing.
Hopefully the iPad dominates like the iPod did. There definitely were a lot of iPod clones back in the day, can’t exactly remember how any of those turned out though.
I’d like some more competition, it would help Apple innovate anyway. Any company having 95% market share isn’t such a brilliant idea. Also, MP3 players existed before and after the iPod, but the iPod was the most successful by far. Nothing cloned it really well.
@darwiniandude:disqus Apple has plenty of competition in the smartphone space. They redefined the tablet further than any tablet computer previously tread, and sit atop the rest not only because of the product they’re pushing but the marketing push, infrastructure and integration supporting it. If anything they deserve to have the marketshare they have. Smartphone wise – plenty of manufacturers are holding Apple back, but the answers to the iPad are coming from smartphone manufacturers and PC manufacturers not innovating in the space but trying to COPY the iPad. The iPad deserves the market it created.
@mommagrizzly I wholeheartedly agree, and I’ve personally bought each iPad on day one, it’s my main computer I feel. I just still think some competition is good, but I definitely want other people to buy the Android tablets, not me.
Actually, I don’t want others to buy them currently, they’re a pretty terrible experience, you can’t backup your tablet and restore it to a future model etc, so many holes in the ecosystem vs iOS.
There is plenty of competitiion, it’s just none of the others work nearly as well as the comments say. I agree.
iPad is just so good. You get so much usage out of a $399 computer it is great value for dollar.
For 399$ you can get a better netbook. And sorry…. “so much usage”…. like what? playing games & surfing site without much writing… wow, that must be something huge… wait.. is it just a tablet?
I seriously feel Ipad is just a gimmick with great display. There is no ease to document, no ease to experiment on the OS and also the UI is worst… But seriously, the display is great…
I have a galaxy tab and Ipad2… I found galaxy tab is so customizable and whenever we feel the UI is boring, just change it to a new one and get a entire new look… Itz better to be a bird in forest rather than in cage…
I don’t use my iPad much… I am more comfortable using a notebook…
The iPad business plays out like the iPod did and not like the iPhone.
@Jack Jackson the 1.2% of android, whatever
I’m sure the iPad will continue to dominate as long as Apple keep improving it, like making it easier to edit text or swap docs/photos between apps, for example.
(Based on or upon, not off of!)
you mean like Android?
‘I’d like some more competition, it would help Apple innovate anyway. Any company having 95% market share isn’t such a brilliant idea. Also, MP3 players existed before and after the iPod, but the iPod was the most successful by far. Nothing cloned it really well.’
Sorry, I completely disagree with this. Every tech company and its dog has come out with tablets, so not like there isn’t a shortage of ‘competition’.
Secondly, Apple has a history of innovating regardless. Did they innovate with the iPod sure to competition? Were they under attack in the phone space when they released the iPhone? There was no tablet market to speak of when they released the iPad. All of these were game-changing products that were so much ahead of everything else when it comes to usability, design, and implementation of technology, and all results of Apple being proactive and either entering into new markets, or creating them itself. Apple has shown a willingness and desire to innovate regardless of what anyone else is doing, and constantly challenges itself, so I doubt there’s anything to worry about.
Third, the iPad does not have 95% marketshare as you stated- its 95% web traffic, marketshare is less.
HP Touchpad?
Where is the “I Like” disqus button?
i do not really like ipdas despite that i have one. probably it will get rusty
There’s no indication on how a device is actully identified though – I’ve tried out that information through other sites, but all they do is quote the same click-bait figures without any reference to methodology or what proportion of web-sites might actually carry these ads. While iPad numbers are large and imensely popular we do know that it’s nowhere near 95% of all tablets. Are they saying that there are a large number of non-iPad tablets that never access the Internet? Regarding identification, if it’s done through information passed by the browser then the methodology is likely flawed because many devices outside of the iPad allow you to change the user string. It’s often done on Android devices for example so as to show the full version of a web-site rather than the mobile one. How does their ad network actually identify a tablet from one model to another? (I made an assumption that this survey is based on the user string as this is mentioned in another one of their reports namely the one on Windows 8 CP and in the absence of additional information). Pretty much all iPads will be running the Safari browser whereas there is wide variation on many other devices.
By the way, analysts are not experts they use at best educated guesswork especially looking further ahead in the future. So labelling someone as a so-called ‘expert’ shouldn’t automatically make what they say more credible. 🙂 Figures from analysts such as Gartner are frequently subject to revisions even in a more mature market (i.e. one which you would imagine should be more predictable) such as PCs and even from quarter to quarter let alone years ahead. With the tablet market we’re stil at an imature stage where there are still a lot of unknowns. For example, while many people seem to have already written off Windows 8 tablets, it is ultimately going to come down to how well Microsoft can encourage manufacturers to offer a range of different devices and form factors ( along with encouraging third party developers to produce some innovative and interesting Metro apps). If they can encourage 5-10% of people contemplating a PC to give a Windows 8 tablet a go they would sell around 17-40m tablets a year. Not in 2012 though, more likely 2013 and beyond I’m not saying that they will, but it’s not beyond the realms of possibility. Competition and choice for users is great though.
That’s because iPad is the leading tablet available in the market today trouncing many of its lesser known competitors.