Research firms are a buzz with “media tablet” analysis reports, lately. On Thursday ABI Research posted their latest analysis of the media tablet market. In their findings ABI Research saw all Android powered media tablets take a collective 20% market share away from the Apple iPad over the last 12 months.
Now 20% isn’t much considering the amount of Android tablet makers that percentage is spread across, I can think of ten companies off the top of my head (Acer, Asus, Archos, Creative, HTC, Lenovo, Motorola, Samsung, Toshiba and ViewSonic), but that 20% is better than have zero or a negative effect.
ABI Research credits the light impact of Android over the span of 12 months to ‘fragmentation within the operating system software’. In their press release ABI Research explains, “Application developers must choose an initial software platform and may delay starting development if the market potential is not significant. Google’s Android OS has no less than three different software builds deployed across media tablets at the same time. The benefits of open software platform development have yet to be realized for media tablets”.
Software fragmentation could be the problem that’s holding back consumers from making the Android leap. Knowing that if you get Android tablet xyz you can’t access an application like Netflix or Skype would be a turn off.
However there is no one definite answer for why people aren’t buying as many Android tablets, there are multiple reasons a consumer could have for holding off on an Android tablet for now. Recently Forrester Research pointed out that Android tablets not offering an ecosystem that is comparable to the Apple iPad as a reason. Since early 2011 Android fans have voiced that prices are holding them back from getting an Android tablet.