Apple's iPad Still King Of Tablets

Market-share leader will face challenges from Google, Microsoft

 

By Todd Spangler, Multichannel News -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/14/2012 9:40:00 AM

Apple increased its dominance in the media tablet market with the iPad's worldwide share rising to nearly 70% in the second quarter, according to research firm IHS iSuppli -- although Apple will face new competition from Microsoft and Google in the back half of 2012.

In Q2, Apple shipped 17 million iPad 2 and new iPad tablets, up 44% from the previous quarter. That boosted its market share by 11.5 percentage points, to 69.6% up from 58.1% in the first quarter. Through July, Apple has shipped more than 85 million iPad tablets since the product's launch in April 2010.

Tablets have quickly emerged as popular video-consumption devices for TV and movie content, with displays that are larger and sharper than smartphones. Apple's newest iPad, for example, features a 9.7-inch screen with a 2048-by-1536 "Retina" display that yields a pixel depth of 3.1 million -- four times that of previous iPads and 1 million more pixels than a typical HDTV.

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