Data released recently by YouGov confirmed that Apple's dominance of the tablet market in the UK is facing a serious challenge (see chart below). 10% of respondents said they owned a Samsung device in Q1 of 2013, up from 4% at the same time last year. Amazon's Kindle Fire also gained, at 4% (from 1%) and Google's Nexus rose to 8%. Apple's range of iPads fell 10% to 63%, but the iPad Mini now has 4% of share and has the best consumer satisfaction score. More than 8 million UK adults now own a tablet – up by 5% since the last quarter of 2012.
UK Tablet Ownership Market
Source: YouGov Tablet Tracker http://yougov.co.uk/news/2013/04/18/quality-android-tablets/ This sort of decline is no surprise; it's rare in consumer electronics history for a manufacturer to popularise and dominate a category as successfully as Apple has. Competitors introduce products to compete directly (like Samsung's Galaxy range) or target profitable niches of demand - like a lower price point, as met by the Nexus and Tab. Others extend their existing product range into the category, seeking to compete, defend their existing core sales (of services and content, not just devices) and cross-sell to a loyal user base - think Amazon and the Kindle Fire.But what does the growth of the Marketshare of non iOS devices mean to marketers? Six months ago I would have looked at what targeting Google offered in AdWords, and suggested the following: marketers with sites that did not work correctly for individual tablets, or with propositions they simply did not feel would convert into sales via a tablet should opt-out (laying aside multi-device attribution consumer journeys and attribution for a moment).Soon, there will be no opt out. July 22nd is the hard switch over to Enhanced Campaigns in AdWords; no opt out will be possible. We're already migrating campaigns to be ready ahead of this date. Brands will pay after July for tablet traffic regardless of whether their site works properly on a tablet or they achieve a positive return via this device type. Whilst Google promised cross-device reporting at the launch of Enhanced Campaigns, to enabling marketers to quantify how tablet traffic support sales that actually occurred on other devices, that is not scheduled to launch in July. It won't be relevant if the site in question offers a poor consumer experience to begin with. The consumer journey with that brand is likely to end at the tablet, not be enhanced by it.So now is the time to test your site (again) on tablets. The above market share figures provide an indication of what to test beyond the iPad - and remember to test the smaller iPad Mini as well as it's bigger brethren - but look at your web analytics, too. Which devices have been used to access your site in Q1?Here's some of the high level considerations we make when designing sites and content for different tablets:Processor Power:The iPad has a powerful processor that can handle animation and browser-based games relatively well; by comparison older Samsung Tabs might struggle as they have lower power processors. This directly impacts the design of the site or app – for example the use (or not) of effects like animated hover states and sliding transitions which might look slick on a powerful device, and terrible (if not irritating to the consumer) on a slower device.Screen Size:The aspect ratios of different design need to be taken into account – as does pixel density. Designing for high-res-devices like the iPad Retina or high-end Galaxy tabs requires the designer to design at a much higher resolution in Photoshop and requires the front-end developer create two sets of assets, one set at the high-resolution ad another set for ‘normal’ resolution for other tablets. This needs factoring into project planning, costing and the actual design work.Browser Rendering Engines:Even though many tablet default browsers are built on the Webkit rendering engine, they still have their differences in how they display sites and how a user can interact with certain elements – so again, research, planning and testing are required.These are just some examples of the challenges the growth of non-Apple tablets present designers and marketers. Ultimately sites (and apps) need to work across devices and achieve their targets, be they converting visitors into customers or causing an audience to engage content – so now is the time to test your site again, and not just on the iPad.
Thank you to Ben in our content team for his help with this post.
