Apple still leads the way with tablet browsing but changes may be ahead
A new report from ABI Research has been causing a bit of a buzz around the office this week. We've grown to accept the dominance of big hitters Apple and Samsung in the world of tablets; however it seems that other vendors are now starting to catch up and eat into the big two's market share.
In Q1 this year Apple and Samsung had a combined 72% of the tablet sales market. Q2 saw this drop to 66%. Does this mean that the tide is turning? Samsung alone lost an 8.8% share during this period.
To compliment the report from ABI, we decided to conduct some research of our own using the 51Degrees web analytics tool, the results of which are below. We looked at this from a slightly different angle as we were interested in which vendors devices are being used to access the internet.
In this example we have focused on tablets that were used to access the internet this September in the UK. If you would like to look at other areas results, simply click on the chart and change the relevant drop down field to the country you wish to explore.
So, this chart doesn't really tell us much that we didn't already know. Apple is dominating the market, Samsung are doing their best to keep pace and then we have the rest.
Now, if we remove Apple and Samsung, things take on a completely new perspective.
This chart shows the percentage of UK internet access from tablets by vendor once Apple, Samsung and any unknown devices are taken out of the equation. As you'd probably expect Amazon leads the way here with the highest share of web traffic on 43%.
Not far behind is Asus on 32% and Tesco are making headway by coming in front of specialist brands Acer and Lenovo with just over 12%. Lenovo have made significant inroads in this area yet despite being heavily tipped to take that 3rd spot on tablet sales globally, it seems in the UK at least, that they're machines are not necessarily being purchased for scouring the web.
So in summary, we've got an interesting few years ahead. As tablets become commoditised and lower priced imports become more readily available we are likely to see a rapidly changing market with value for money being an even more important factor.
At 51Degrees we have seen an explosion in web activity originating from tablets over the last two years and expect this to grow considerably. Being able to recognise and optimise your website for this growing number of devices is now becoming more important than ever and is no longer viewed as a nice to have, but a must-have.
Access further information on 51Degrees device detection solutions.
You can read further details of the recent ABI research report “ASUS, Lenovo, and Amazon Fight for Tablet Third Place as Apple and Samsung Loosen Grip”.