The tablet market is fairly young, but pretty much its entire life has seen the iPad claiming nearly the entire market. In spite of there being several Android tablets on the market, Apple’s reign in this challenge this has never been contested. And while the last quarter of 2010 may not have seen this title change hands, it did, for the first time ever,see Apple drop below the 95% mark…and it dropped hard. Android is offering a huge variety of tablets at varying price points, with some very capable Acer tablets dropping at $299. When measured against Apple’s $499 offering at the cheapest, that price difference is a huge consideration. While Apple certainly hasn’t seen the last tablet sold, Android tablets are on the rise and will undoubtedly continue to erode the iPad’s lead. Apple’s tablet is expected to slip to as low as 67% in just the next couple of months. Android tablets saw an increase of 22% of the marketshare, up from 2.3% in Q3 2010. At this rate, Android will be well-poised to challenge Apply for dominance by the end of this year, if not sooner.
The Motorola Xoom will almost definitely tip the scales even farther, as the first dual-core tablet to his the market. Those looking for the toughest hardware available will surely give the Xoom their full attention. We’re looking to see what the myriad of tablets have to offer against Apple lead in this department, but frankly, we expect good things, and can’t wait to see how the chips fall.
[via Bloomberg, by way of Android Central]