If I were to ask for a quick show of hands for those using an Android tablet over an iPad, I’d be greeted with a sea of hands. Of course, that’s because I’d be asking the question on Android Headlines. The IDC however, have taken a look at recent data to ask the same sort of question, and they still saw a sea of hands, well we should say a sea of Android tablets. Android tablets now hold 56.5% Market Share when it comes to Tablets. That’s a lot but, the most interesting number, and most important number, is that Android tablets grew 247% this past quarter. That is astonishing growth and it means great things for Android going forward.
The numbers make for interesting, if not obvious, reading. Shipments of Android tablets this past quarter added up to more than everyone else – combined. In Q1 there were 27.8 Million Android tablets shipped, which is a healthy amount more than the 19.5 Million iPads that shipped. It’s worth noting that this is not the sign of Android finally dominating iOS, as Apple still shipped 65.3 Million tablets more than they did in Q1 2012. The sector as a whole is growing and that’s a good thing for Android tablets.
Let’s be really honest here, that Nexus 7 you have is an awesome piece of kit but, the app selection sucks, right? Sure, you could make the excuse that phone apps look just fine on the Nexus 7, which they do but, what about all those 10-inch tablets, like the Nexus 10? Well, phone apps at full-size on those look god awful and for a lot of people it’s too poor an experience to even live with. I went from owning a ten-inch tablet to the Nexus 7 specifically because of the app situation, Android is better than this and it’s about time that developers start taking note.
It’s easy enough to take advantage of the added real estate on a tablet, and there are some shining examples out there in the Play Store. It’s still not good enough though, and Apple are still laughing at how bad Android tablet apps are. What these figures show is that not only is Android a successful smartphone platform to develop for but, a tablet platform as well. There are a whole lot of hungry tablet users out there just waiting to gorge on quality Android apps. let’s hope that with these latest figures, we start to see developers get behind Android as a tablet OS as well.
[Source: IDC]