Android tablets tipped to out-number iPads within two years

Android operated tablet computers will be out-selling their iOS counterparts within the next two years, according to Neil Mawston, director of the US-based research firm Strategy Analytics.

It was Mr Mawston’s company that released the latest data on the two major sections of the fledgling tablet PC market, which showed Android still lagging behind Apple but having increased its share tenfold in the last three months of 2010.

The iPad still accounted for roughly three in every four tablet PCs sold worldwide during that time but Strategy Analytics’ boss is convinced that Apple’s lead on the competition will continue to be cut as months and years go by.

“Apple’s volumes will continue to go up, but market share will inevitably go down,” he told Bloomberg. “If you were to ask me in two years time, will Apple have less than 50 per cent of the global tablet market, I think that’s a certainty.”

Outlining the thinking behind his assertions, Mr Mawston suggested that price will be the defining factor that sees Android-operated tablets catch-up with Apple and the iPad, at least in terms of the number of units being sold on a monthly basis.

“Even at $500 retail, based on some of the research we’ve done, that’s probably two or three times more than what most mass market consumers are expecting to pay.”

The comments might come as slightly uncomfortable reading for Apple’s chief operating officer Tim Cook, who recently described the Android-operated tablets on the market as present as “vapour” and as nothing more than “scaled-up smartphones”.

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