An investor’s note by Citi analyst Glen Yeung says that the iPad is seeing its marketshare shrink in response to the smaller tablets. He notes that after the iPad Mini’s launch, fourth quarter sales of the iPad fell 9 percent and 29 percent in Japan year-over- year, showing more people gravitating to the smaller tablet.
“Beyond simply the overall share loss, the data reveals a particular slowdown in 10-inch iPad sales in mature markets,” said Yeung. “After analyzing the data, we have new concerns about the health of the 10-inch tablet market and, absent any material innovations (we do not count a Retina Mini or lighter/thinner iPad 5 among these), we remain concerned about Apple’s ability to maintain market share.”
Yeung also noted that 7-inch Android tablets, including the Google Nexus 7, Samsung Galaxy Tab, and Amazon Kindle Fire, took 41.2 percent of the tablet market share in Q4, up from 12.6 percent in the second quarter. Meanwhile 10-inch tablets fell from 67.3 percent to 40.6 percent during the same time period.
Source: CNet
