Tablet shipments reached the 66.9 million units last year. FILE

• Apple iPad still dominates the preferences

Tablets running on Android increased its market share overall at 39% of total fourth quarter

WASHINGTON, USA (26/Jan/2012)-tablets that work with the operating system Google Android, are increasing their global market share, although the Apple iPad still dominates the preferences, according to an investigation disclosed Thursday.

The consulting firm Strategy Analytics said that tablet running on Android increased its market share overall at 39 per cent of the total in the fourth quarter of 2011, from 29% who had a year earlier.

The iPad, meanwhile, garnered 58% of the market for tablets in the same quarter, a drop from 68% of the previous year, said the firm based in Boston.

Strategy Analytics director Peter King said that global Tablet shipments reached a record of 26.8 million devices in the fourth quarter, an increase of 120% compared to the same period of the previous year.

Apple sold 15.4 million iPads in the last three months of the year, while Android placed 10.5 million tablets.

“Apple shrugged off the much-publicized threat of the basic models of Android this quarter”, said King.

In the meantime, the executive director of Strategy Analytics, Neil Mawston, said that Android “so far remains relatively popular among manufacturers of tablets despite growing concerns about the fragmentation of Android operating system, the user interface and the system of the app store”.

Tablet shipments reached the 66.9 million units the year past, a rise from 260% from 18.6 million in 2010, according to Strategy Analytics.

“Consumers are increasingly buying more tablets instead of ‘netbooks’ and even (competing with) laptops core and table computers”, said.