Skip to main content

Tablet shipments now greatly exceed netbooks; Android shipments climbing up

Tablet shipments now greatly exceed netbooks; Android shipments climbing up

Share this story

Galaxy Tab 8.9 hands-on
Galaxy Tab 8.9 hands-on

This won't surprise anyone who's been watching the explosive growth of the iPad, or the proliferation of numerous Android tablets, but tablet shipments significantly exceeded netbook shipments in Q2 2011. According to ABI Research, 13.6 million tablets were shipped (but not necessarily sold) in Q2 2011, compared to only 7.3 million netbooks. Strategy Analytics backs up this huge growth with data showing tablet shipments in Q3 2011 are up 280 percent over a year ago — and the company also shows that Android tablet shipments are rising dramatically.

One year ago, the iPad existed in a vacuum — Apple's tablet accounted for 95 percent of all tablets shipped, but after a year Android shipments make up 27 percent of all tablets shipping. That still trails Apple's 67 percent significantly, and what matters most is how many of these Android tablets are actually sold to consumers; Strategy Analytics doesn't have any data on that point. Without concrete sales figures, its hard to say how much of an actual impact Android is having in the tablet marketplace, but Android manufacturers are certainly putting in the effort.