Android tablets surge across Australia-NZ - and set to steal more iPad share

SECOND-QUARTER TABLET SHIPMENTS, AUSTRALIA-NEW ZEALAND

Total shipments: 420,000 (Q1: 200,000)
NZ shipments: 54,600 (Q1: 30,000)
Apple iPad share: 74.6% (Q1: 83%; Q3 est: 70%)
Android share: 25% 
BlackBerry PlayBook share: 0.4% (new)
 

FULL-YEAR TABLET SHIPMENTS, 
AUSTRALIA-NEW ZEALAND

Total shipments 2011: 1.3 million (est.)
Total shipments 2010: 550,000 (actual)
NZ shipments 2011: 156,000 (est.)

Source: IDC
 

UPDATE SEPT 30: IDC has now publically released its Australia-New Zealand tablet shipment numbers for the second quarter, as first-revealed by NBR September 21.

The survey found that Apple iPad 2 shipments doubled in volume over the three months.

But Android-based tablet shipments grew faster, pushing iPad's market share from the first quarter's 83% to 74.6%.

Today, IDC said it saw this trend continuing, with iPad share falling to around 70% by year's end.

1.3 million tablets by year's end
The market tracker sees 1.3 million tablet shipments across Australia and New Zealand by the end of this year - more than double 2010's volume.

Of that total, around 300,000 will be Android tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (sold by Vodafone NZ and various retailers) and the Motorola Xoom (Telecom). 

Several market developments should help the iPad challenger's cause over the next few months.

Android ranks are set to be boosted by Amazon's Kindle Fire, which will be released in the US November 15 (international ship dates have yet to be announced).

The while the Android Market lacks the depth of Apple's iTunes AppStore, it is catching up fast - and could get a further boost if RIM adds support for Android apps to the BlackBerry Playbook (which runs on the proprietary QNX OS. A RIM rep promised NBR that Android app support was coming "soon" and that there would be no performance hit from the software emulation required to run Android apps within QNX). Android tablets also enjoy the advantage of being able to display Adobe Flash - a popular format for websites and video-on-demand services.

NZ tablet shipments revealed

SEPT 21 A report from market tracker IDC, due later this week, will show a booming local tablet market.

It will also reveal that Google Android devices are starting to chip away at Apple’s iPad, NBR has learned.

In the second quarter of this year, Australia and New Zealand media tablet shipments hit 420,000 units, IDC Asia Pacific market analyst Yee Kuan Lau told NBR yesterday (the company tracks units shipped as opposed to sold).

The amount was double the volume of the previous quarter, Ms Lau said.

New Zealand accounted for 13% of Australasian shipments, or 54,600 tablets.

Turnaround
The result was a turnaround on the first quarter when Australasian tablet shipments actually fell 34% over the final quarter of 2010 to 200,000 units (15% of which, or 30,000 tablets, were shipped in New Zealand).

IDC said the first quarter decline due to a lull after a big Christmas for tablet sales, plus buyers sitting on their hands a head of the release of Apple’s iPad 2 (in March) and new models from Samsung, Motorola and others running on Google’s Android 3.0 software (aka Honeycomb, the first version of Android specifically developed for a tablet rather than a mobile phone).

With the new models now available, and more models available across the board, growth had reignited, Ms Lau said.

Apple share down
A fast expanding market meant all players were shipping more tablets in absolute terms.

But IDC’s latest numbers also reveal that the Apple iPad’s monolithic market share is starting to fall.

During the first quarter, Apple held 83% of Australasian shipments.

By IDC’s survey, that share had fallen to 75%.

Android 3 tablets had the greatest impact, but the quarter also saw the release of RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook.

On Friday, RIM revealed it had sold 200,000 PlayBooks worldwide during its quarter ending August 27, well short of the expected 600,000 and contributing to a 59% profit dip.