Boston – Apple’s iPad
captured an 80 percent share of the 7.5 million tablets shipping in North
America in the second quarter, Strategy Analytics announced.
“Apple has a
tight grip on the American tablet market that Amazon and others will find hard,
but not impossible, to break,” the research and consulting company said.
“Apple
remains a long way ahead of its main rivals such as Motorola, Samsung, RIM,
Asus and HTC,” said senior analyst Alex Spektor. “A combination of cool branding,
user-friendly hardware, entertaining services and savvy retail distribution has
made Apple a formidable market leader.”
Amazon’s expected announcement on Wednesday of
an Amazon-branded tablet could provide some stiff competition for the iPad,
said Strategy Analytics director Neil
Mawston. “Provided
the pricing, screen size and hardware design are right, Amazon can be one of
the main challengers to Apple’s dominance,” he said. Like
Apple, he explained, “Amazon
has a strong brand, compelling content, sophisticated billing systems and
widespread distribution.” Amazon’s
new tablet product “represents
a good opportunity to place an Amazon shopping cart in the hands of American
consumers, offering optimized access to purchasing digital content or physical
goods from the Amazon online store,” he
said.
The
tablet statistics are contained in the company’s Global Tablet Vendor Market Share by Region report,
which is available on the company’s
.
Apple’s share is slipping, however, with the onslaught of new tablet suppliers. Apple’s first-quarter share was 86 percent, and in 2010’s second quarter, it was 97 percent, Strategy Analytics said.
