For Apple, IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker for the third quarter brought great news and even more great news.
In the third quarter, the iPad accounted for almost 90 percent of tablet shipments. At the same time, the total market for tablet PCs rocketed up 45 percent from the second quarter, setting Apple and an emerging pack of tablet vendors for fantastic growth for the foreseeable future.
Amazon led the ereader pack with 42 percent of all shipments in the quarter, followed by Pandigital (16 percent), Barnes & Noble (15 percent), Sony and Hanvon at 8 percent, respectively. IDC is forecasting more than 10.8 million ereaders will have been shipped in 2010 and that figure will jump to 14.7 million this year and more than 16.6 million in 2012.
While it will surely face more competition from the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and Research In Motion’s PlayBook and dozens of others, there’s still plenty of room for Apple to grow, especially considering its second-generation iPadis expected to become available in the next few months.
For now, IDC is expecting tablet PC shipments of more than 44.6 million units in 2011, more than double the 17 million units sold last year, and nearly 40 percent of all these new tablets will be sold in the U.S.
For now, IDC predicts more than 70.8 million tablets will be sold worldwide in 2012.