IDC estimates Android tablets to outsell iPads in 2013

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), Apple may sell fewer tablets than its Android based brethren this year. IDC has also increased its 2013 forecast for the worldwide tablet market from 172.4 million to 190.9 million units.

Ronald Tiefenthäler/ Alex Storey, 03/13/2013

The IDC is raising its forecast for global tablet shipments from 172.4 million to 190.9 million units. Forecasts of tablet shipments between 2013 and 2016 have also been updated and increased by 11%. Meanwhile the latest estimates for 2017 predict 350 million units shipped.

Smaller and cheaper tablets seem to be steamrolling their way into consumers’ lives, as one in every two tablets sold this quarter had a screen size of less than 8 inches. Google's Nexus 7 tablet and Amazon's Kindle Fire and Fire HD have been doing quite well, while rumor has it that the iPad mini may outsell its bigger brother in 2013. HP’s Slate 7 and ASUS’ FonePad (essentially a Nexus 7 with calling capabilities) are also just a couple of recent examples in a growing sub-8” tablet market.

The IDC expects Android’s market share to increase to 48.8 percent this year. In 2012 Apple iOS held 51 percent of the tablet market, while in 2013 it may be seeing its share shrink to 46 percent. Meanwhile Windows 8 and Windows RT are a distant 3^rd and 4^th, at 2.8 percent and 1.9 percent respectively. IDC claim the market isn’t responding to Microsoft’s decision to release two different operating systems for tablets. However Windows 8 is expected to gain 7.4 percent of the tablet market by 2017.