Nielsen: iPad maintaining choke hold grip on the tablet market

Various market surveys pegged Apple’s share of the holiday tablet market anywhere from 75 percent to more than the 95 percent Steve Jobs claimed at the iPad 2 introduction last February. Research firm Nielsen is out today with a new survey that in fact shows Apple growing its US tablet share rather than decline amid more than two hundred tablets swarming the market. The survey, which was fielded in Spring 2011, shows Apple controlling a whopping 82 percent of the US tablet market.

    With new entrants like the Samsung Galaxy and the Motorola Xoom, the market for tablet computers is heating up in the United States, even though iPad continues to dominate the conversation – and market.
Interestingly, Samsung (four percent), Dell (three percent) and Motorola Mobility (two percent) devices collectively have nine percent market share, the same as the Other category. Other interesting observations reveal that tablets continue chipping away at other computing devices, namely our desktop and notebook computers…


One in four tablet owners spend less time playing game consoles and 32 percent use their notebook less often or never. More than one third of tablet owners (35 percent) use their desktop less often or never. The survey also shows the iPad and tablets per se cutting into sales of dedicated devices – 27 percent of surveyed consumers are using their e-reader or media player less often each after buying a tablet.

Nevertheless, dedicated e-book readers remain popular due to their e-ink display technology, low price and convenience. A recent IHS iSuppli report spells gloomy future for paper book printing as consumers turn to e-books.

On the other hand, makers of dedicated e-book readers are thought to be seeking ways to expand into the tablet market. Amazon is rumored to have an iPad challenger in the works and Barnes & Noble confirmed in their Form 8-K plans to release “a new e-reader device” on May 24.