ComputerWeekly.com.com

Apple loses tablet market share as iPad yields 27% to Google Android devices

By Kathleen Hall

Kathleen Hall is correspondent for Computer Weekly. She writes about technology issues in small to medium-sized enterprises, as well as specialising in the retail and services sectors.

Previously Kathleen worked as business reporter for Vitesse Media, covering SMEs and enterprise IT. 

Follow her on Twitter @KatHallCW

[email protected] 

Apple's share of the tablet market has shrunk 29% to 67%, as Google's mobile operating system Android took a chunk out of the company's global sales during the last quarter this year.

Android-powered tablet computers rose to 27% from 2.3% for the same period a year earlier, according to research firm Strategy Analysis.

"Amazon's strategy of minimising its hardware price is set to ignite the entry-level tablet segment and attract more mass- market consumers," Neil Mawston, a director from Strategy Analysis, told Bloomberg.

Total tablet sales amounted to 16.7 million units in the third quarter, more than tripling from 4.4 million a year earlier, the research firm said.

The news follows revelations from Steve Jobs's biography that the Apple founder had sworn to use the company's fortune to destroy Android, claiming Google had copied the design of its iPhone features.

Google upped its positioning in the smartphone and tablet market with the introduction of its latest version of its mobile operating system Android. The first device to run on Android 4.0 - also known as Ice Cream Sandwich - will be the Google and Samsung Galaxy Nexus. It is set for release in the UK in November 2011.