By Anu Passary | Aug 16, 2012 10:30 AM EDT
Apple's rivals are working hard to topple the tech company from its pedestal, but market share statistics indicate that Apple continues its reign as the tablet titan.
According to research firm HIS iSuppli, new data suggests that Apple, Inc. accounted for nearly 70 percent of the tablet market share in Q2 2012. Arch-rival Samsung came in a distant second with 9.2 percent. Other market players like Amazon, Asus, and Barnes & Noble accounted for 4.2 percent, 2.8 percent, and 1.9 percent of the share, respectively.
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"Apple is making all the right moves to rebuild its dominant position in the tablet space," said Rhoda Alexander, HIS director for tablet and monitor research. "The company is pushing visual performance boundaries with the new iPad, while providing value customers with a lower-priced alternative, the iPad 2."
In Q2 2012, the "king of all media tablets" saw a 44 percent jump in sales as it shipped 17 million new iPads at Amazon Marketplace, when compared to the 11.8 million shipped in Q1 2012. Consequently, the increase in shipments enabled Apple's market share to grow from 58 percent in Q1 2012 to 69.6 percent in Q2 2012.
Apple last saw such a high market share in Q1 2011 and at its current pace, the Cupertino giant seems poised to reclaim its lost tablet market share and thwart impending competition from rivals like Google (Nexus 7) and Microsoft (Surface).
"With the expected entrance of the 7-inch version of the iPad in September, Apple is sending a clear message that it plans to dominate this market over the long term. Apple's major media tablet rivals, Google, Inc. and Microsoft Corp., hope to challenge Apple in the second half of the year, but will be facing formidable headwinds with no sign that the market leader is backing off of its aggressive strategy in the market," added Alexander.
However, tech pundits opine that both Google and Microsoft have the potential to become major market players. Both companies have invested in the development of an app ecosystem for their tablet offerings, an approach that defines Apple's success story and one that challengers have failed to replicate - a reminder that tablets are about user experience, rather than just the hardware.
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