Apple sees tablet market share drop to 50 per cent as it sells 3m new iPads over first weekend on release
Despite having sold 3 million new iPads in the first three days of the unit’s availability, Apple has seen its share of the tablet market slide to just over 50 per cent.
According to figures released by research firm IDC, Apple’s share of the tablet market in the third quarter of 2012 fell from 65.4 per cent to 50.4 per cent, as its rivals gained ground.
Those that increased their share included Samsung which reached 18.4 per cent, the highest level achieved by one of Apple’s rival’, almost doubling its share from the previous quarter, when it had 9.4 per pent of the market.
Amazon’s Kindle Fire came third having taken nine per cent share.
Meanwhile, according to Reuters, 3 million new iPads were sold during the their first weekend on release with analysts estimating that sales of the 7.9-inch iPad mini and fourth-generation 9.7-inch version were higher than previously expected, with Apple CEO claiming that the figure is double that of the last weekend milestone.