Apple’s iPad will retain top sales position until 2015, according to research by Gartner. This year tablet sales will reach 63.6 million with the iPad taking the lion’s share at 73.4 percent. By 2015 Gartner expects annual tablet sales to reach 326,000 and Apple will command more than 50 percent of the market through to 2014.
This year, with WebOS out of the way, at least for the moment, Android and QNX are the main challengers. Gartner have scaled back their estimates on Android which, they say, will shift 11 million tablets to take 17.3 percent of the market. This is only slightly better than the 14.3 percent notched up in 2010. Say Gartner:
So far, Android’s appeal in the tablet market has been constrained by high prices, weak user interface and limited tablet applications. Google will address the fragmentation of Android across smartphone and tablet form factors within the next Android release, known as ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’, which we expect to see in the fourth quarter of 2011. Android can count on strong support from key OEMs, has a sizeable developer community, and its smartphones application ecosystem is second only to Apple’s.”