Android Tablet Market Share Nearly Matches the iPad

The worldwide market share of Android tablets is just a few percentage points below that of Apple's iPad, new research says. Meanwhile, Windows tablets have carved out a significant but "niche" market in their first fill quarter being available.

Android tablets make up 43.4% of the global tablet market, while iOS-based ones (including the iPad, iPad 2 and iPad mini) represent 48.2%, according to data from Strategy Analytics. The 4.8% gap isn't negligible, but it's much less than 28.9% difference from the same period in 2012.

Two important caveats: The data reflects only the tablets sold during the quarter, not how many devices exist in the market. It also counts tablets shipped to vendors, which isn't the same thing as what is sold to consumers. Read more...