iPad 2 dominates, as Android tablets lose ground

Android tablets are losing ground to new entrants, including the much-criticized Research In Motion PlayBook and even the discontinued Hewlett-Packard TouchPad, IDC reported in its second quarter report on tablet and ebook sales.

Apple’s iPad 2 continues to dominate the tablet market, shipping 9.3 million units and achieving a 68.3 percent share of the worldwide market in the second quarter, IDC found. That’s up from 65.7 percent in the first quarter.

RIM managed to reach 4.9 percent market share for its PlayBook, which has been widely criticized in part for lacking key software like an email client and for having relatively few available applications.

The competition from Apple and RIM put pressure on Android tablets, which lost share in the second quarter, slipping to 26.8 percent of the market from 34.0 percent in the first quarter, according to IDC.

In the current quarter, Android will face even more competition, as people snap up fire-sale HP TouchPad’s. HP recently announced it would discontinue the TouchPad, dropping the price to $99. As a result of the subsequent frenzy that sold out the device in days, HP decided to manufacture an additional run of the devices. IDC expects nearly 1 million TouchPads to ship into the channel before the end of the year.

That means in the third quarter, TouchPads are expected to make up 4.7 percent of the market and that additional competition will further shrink Android’s share of the market to 23 percent, IDC said.

However, by the fourth quarter, without the TouchPad competition, Android should start growing again and will reach 25.9 percent, IDC said. By the first quarter next year, TouchPad market share will reduce to zero, IDC said.

Overall, tablet shipments reached 13.6 million, up by 88.9 percent in the second quarter compared to the first and 303.8 percent compared to last year, IDC said. The researchers have upped their forecast for 2011 to 62.5 million tablets, up from a previous expectation of 53.5 million units.

IDC also said that Amazon continues to lead the ereader market, with its Kindle taking 51.7 percent share, followed by the Barnes & Noble Nook with 21.2 percent of the market. IDC expects that significant holiday sales will result in a total of 27.0 million ereaders sold this year. It previously projected 16.2 million units would sell.

Editor’s Note: IDC is owned by IDG, the same parent company that owns both IDG News Service and Macworld.