Android tablets make big NZ market share gain

THIRD-QUARTER 2011 TABLET SHIPMENTS, AUSTRALIA-NEW ZEALAND

Total ANZ shipments:  434,000 (Q2: 420,000; Q1: 200,000)
NZ shipments: 59,892  (Q2: 54,600; Q1: 30,000)
Apple iPad share ANZ: 77% (Q2: 74.6%; Q1: 83%)
Apple iPad share NZ: 79% (Q2: 90%)
Android share NZ: 15%

The Australia and New Zealand tablet market's growth cooled in the third quarter, rising just 3.1% quarter on quarter with 434,000 units shipped.

According to IDC’s A/NZ Quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker (2011 Q3) Australia contributed 86.2% of total shipments in ANZ and rose just 1.6% quarter-on-quarter.

In Q3, Android media tablets growth went opposite ways across ANZ. In Australia it dropped by 37% from the previous quarter whereas in New Zealand, it grew by slightly more than 60% quarter-on-quarter (New Zealand is still behind Australian in Android adoption, however).

“The initial hype around a variety of Android media tablet launches in Q2 subdued in Q3 whilst Apple iPad 2 continued its upward momentum in Australia,” said Yee-Kuan Lau, Market Analyst for IDC ANZ.

“The exit of low-cost Android tablets such as Optus MyTab and Telstra T-Touch and the court case over Samsung's Galaxy 10.1 (last week resolved in Samsung's favour) slowed down Android’s momentum in Australia as well.”

Apple attempted to injunct sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, easily the highest profile tablet running Google's Android operating system software. While the action failed with the High Court ruling, last Friday, that sales could go ahead, it still led to weeks of lost Tab sales. The temporary sales halt only applied to the Australian market. Samsung pledged the Tab would be back on shelves by Christmas.

The New Zealand tablet market grew 13.6% over the previous quarter.

“Android momentum is strong in New Zealand and the growth is due amongst other things to the collective efforts of major players such as Motorola, Acer, Asus and Samsung, which had the advantage to sell Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the country,” said Ms. Lau.

Across ANZ, Android-based media tablets unit share dropped by 8% in Q3 from the previous quarter taking up 16.5% of the total market size.

Apple's iPad 2 market share rose to 77.7% in the same quarter. The rest of the shipments went to RIM's PlayBook and also to the one-off shipments of HP’s TouchPad.

“Apple continues to grow in ANZ with additional retail stores followed by a channel expansion: selling through Australian telco operators for the first time and appointing Ingram Micro as a second distributor in New Zealand,” added Ms. Lau.

“Consumers now have more device choices such as Ultrabooks, although the impact of this form factor on media tablets remains minimal at this stage. IDC expects the media tablet momentum will pick up a notch when Android 4.0 tablets are launched and also in the long-run when LTE-capable devices hit the market, which will result in more media tablet sales through telco operators.”

Looking forward to the Christmas period, Android-based media tablets shipments in ANZ are projected to stay below the 100,000 mark with close to 20% unit share in Q4 while Apple iOS is expected to continue its market leader position.

IDC expects approximately 1.5 million units of media tablets shipped into the ANZ channel by the end of the year. Although Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales ban was lifted in mid-December, which came in a timely manner with Christmas season around the corner, IDC does not expect last minute Christmas sales of the device to significantly affect the overall Q4 sales in Australia.