Apple Still Crushing Competitors with 69.6% Share of Tablet Market in Q2

Amazon’s Kindle Fire might be a success, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab devices might be attractive and available in nearly every screen size imaginable, but Apple’s still crushing the global tablet market. A new report from iSuppli found that Apple’s share of the entire tablet market was 69.6 percent during the second quarter, up 44.1 percent from the first quarter of this year.

Apple shipped 17 million iPads in total, compared to Samsung’s 2.25 million units shipped and Amazon’s 1.02 million units shipped. Samsung’s share of the tablet market was just 9.2 percent, up 2.8 percent from the first quarter of this year. Amazon’s tablet share was just 4.2 percent, down 13.3 percent overall. ASUS and Barnes & Noble pulled up the rear with a 2.8 percent share and a 1.9 percent share of the global tablet market, respectively. It doesn’t look like Apple’s dominance will change anytime soon, either.

“Apple is making all the right moves to rebuild its dominant position in the tablet space,” Rhoda Alexander, director of tablet and monitor research for IHS said. “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.”

Apple’s success is largely attributed to the iPad brand and its identity in the global tablet market, something that other device makers have struggled with. iSuppli also said that satisfied iPad owners return to the iPad for their next purchase, too. “Vendors must understand that customers are not buying hardware, but that they are buying an experience,” Alexander said. “Users then want to carry that experience across multiple devices, creating an opening for the savvy vendor into a much larger sales opportunity than a single tablet.”

Nexus 7 Tablet : Specs, Price and Availability in Malaysia

Google’s day one conference at I/O was arguably the best conference from the search giant. There were a ton of announcements, all giving glimpses of Android’s future and where it’s headed to. Android 4.1 , the Nexus 7 and Q , and Project Glass were highlights of the show. But what stole the show was definitely the Nexus 7. The fruit of Google’s partnership with Taiwanese manufacturer Asus was unveiled, an certainly whetted many appetites. Google was in the tablet market, and with the best slate for the job. A sub-$200 pricing and flagship specs make this purchase a no brainer. You woudn’t even consider Amazon’s Kindle Fire, with the Nexus beating the Fire in every way possible , except one – content. So what exactly is so great about the Nexus 7? When is it going to be available in Malaysia ,and for how much? Read on to find out.

Specifications and Hardware

As you can see from the pic above, the Nexus 7 has some very eye catching features, some only available to flagship tablets like the Transformer Prime, which also costs RM1000 more. It’s a miracle how Google and Asus managed to keep costs down in spite of the specs. The Nexus 7 is a buttonless tablet has a 7″ 1280 x 800 HD display , that’s strengthened by Gorilla Glass. It runs on a quad – core Tegra 3 CPU , clocked at 1.2Ghz but it can upscale to 1.3Ghz anytime paired with its 12 – core GPU which proved to boost this tablet’s gaming performance dramatically in the demo. There’s no back- facing camera, but there’s a front facing 1.2 MP one. The Nexus also comes with the standard slew of sensors and of course NFC. The highlight of this tablet that sets it apart from every Android device available, is that it comes with Android’s latest version, Jelly Bean. Jelly Bean brings a lot of new and much wanted features to the table. Among the new features is a new search , Google Now, new Maps features , auto resizing widgets and finally , Android is going to be silky smooth with the introduction of Project Butter. The tablet is also being branded a Google Play tablet, with all Play’s services integrated very well with the OS. Magazines, Books, Games, Apps, Music and Chrome are all readily accessible and offer robust features.

Pricing and Availabilty

After looking at the specs, you’d sure to be looking at a RM1500 – 1800 ( $400-500) pricing for the slate. Well, you were wrong. Google has set the price of the tablet at $199 ( RM 600 ) for the 8GB version and $249 ( RM 780 ) for the 16GB version. That’s incredibly cheap and more than half the price of the cheapest iPad 3 model available. Which also brings us to the availability of the tablet itself. Google is already taking pre-orders for the tablet in its own Google Play Store, and is expected to ship the Nexus sometime mid – July. It’s unfortunate that the Play Store isn’t available in Malaysia currently. However , Google have assured us that the Nexus would be sold in other stores around the world, with Google absorbing marketing costs. When that will reach Malaysia, we don’t know . But ASUS is an Asian company, and they have been quick with Transformer launches here. We have reason to believe that ASUS will push the Nexus sales in Malaysia, and expect it to arrive here around August – September. We have reached out to ASUS on the matter of availability and will let you know when we have confirmation.

Stay tuned to CrackTech for all the latest info.