ANDROID TABLETS

The iPad should be worried. Even with them still reigning the tablet market, Android powered tablets aren’t too far behind!

On the last quarter of 2011, the iPad lost 10% in its sales to rival Android. Comparing this with the 68.2% figure obtained from their 2010 sales, their Q4 sales only reached 57.6% in 2011. This is data collected by a research firm called Strategy Analytics.

Perhaps one reason why Android tablets are gaining speed is because of the number of options available to consumers who are planning to buy a device. Compared to Apple, the only tablet options they have are the iPad and the iPad 2. Meanwhile, Android has a number of tablet and smartphone manufacturers. In addition to this, several Android tablets are less costly compared to the iPad. This is why sales of Android tablets rose from 29.0% to 39.1% (based on the report).

Moreover, the report revealed that there were a total of 15.4 million iPads and 10.5 million Android tablets shipped during the quarter. This more than tripled the number of shipped tablets from the previous year’s count.

According to Neil Mawston of Strategy Analytics, the surge from Android sales was initiated by tablets sold from both Amazon and Samsung Electronics.

“Android is so far proving relatively popular with tablet manufacturers despite nagging concerns about fragmentation of Android’s operating system, user interface and app store ecosystem,”

Lastly, the report showed that the number of tablet shipments throughout the world quadrupled to 66.9 million units (2011) compared to the 18.6 million units shipped a year earlier. Mawston even said that this was a fair representation of the number of tablets that consumers purchased.

On Tuesday, Apple’s Chief Executive Tim Cook spoke with analysts on a conference call on whether he thought that the emergence of lower-cost tablets was the reason that affected the success of the iPad. This is what he had to say:

“I looked at the data, particularly in the U.S., on a weekly basis after Amazon launched the Kindle Fire. In my view, there wasn’t an obvious effect on the numbers plus or minus.”

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Last month we brought you news of Motorola starting pre-orders for the Wifi-only versions of the Motorola XYBOARD, and we were told they would start shipping in mid-January. Well it looks like Motorola kept their word on that.  Motorola sent out an email, letting folks know the devices are now up for purchase on the Motorola website with free two-day shipping available as well for orders over $75. That’s not a problem for those of looking to get a Motorola XYBOARD though considering the prices are as follows:

• XYBOARD 10.1 32GB: $599.99
• XYBOARD 10.1 16GB: $499.99
• XYBOARD 8.2 32GB: $499.99
• XYBOARD 8.2 16GB: $399.99

If you’re considering buying a Motorola XYBOARD (we kinda hate the name too), you might want to head to Motorola’s website and purchase your’s today. If you’re looking for the 4G LTE version head over to Verizon’s website or your local Verizon store and pick one up (2-year agreement required for discounted price).

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Today I unbox and take my first look in the Galaxy Tab 8.9 by Samsung. This tablet packs a nice punch with it’s specs sporting a 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 NVIDIA processor, 1GB of RAM, and a beautiful 8.9 inch display, which measures at 1280×800 pixels to provide a very rich and crisp screen.

The tablet also has Touch Wiz UX, a 3.0 megapixel rear camera, 2.0 megapixel front facing camera, 6100 mAh battery, which is all packed into a thin 0.34 inch tablet with a weight of just over a pound!

I’ve had some time to play with it a little bit and let me tell you this thing is super snappy. Everything loads up fast scrolling is smooth and pinch to zoom is flawless. So far this tablet has impressed me and has yet to give me anything to complain about. The 8.9 size for me seems perfect not to big or to small fits nicely in my hands. This is looking to be a very nice tablet that I personally would love to own.

Stay locked on Android Authority to see my full review in a couple of days.

In the meantime check the beast in action below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N4FwphPeMc

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According to Strategy Analytics, a  market research company, Android managed to capture a whooping 39% market share in Q4 last year, or to be more exact – 10.5 million Android tablets were sold in Q4. Apple maintained its lead at 58% market share, but for how long?

So what helped Android tablets surge so much? The biggest factor in this rise is definitely the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet which was a phenomenal success that surprised even Amazon. The reason Kindle Fire was so successful is because it was a decent tablet that sold for less than half the price of an iPad – $200. While there is a portion of the population who can afford and want an Apple product like the iPad, there will always be more people don’t see the point in spending laptop-level prices for a tablet, especially when they can pay much less for one.

These people are also the same people who don’t care about the latest app that appears in the iOS ecosystem, and want to use it mainly for browsing the web, checking e-mail and watching videos and movies on it. Amazon provides that with all their content, and so does Google increasingly more as they get more involved in the content industry. Google now has music, movies, books, and soon they’ll even have premium Youtube channels to keep people entertained (although I hope they will treat the books business more seriously, because they really aren’t right now).

I wish Google and the other Android manufacturers would have realized the potential of the under-$250 tablets, but it probably wasn’t until the firesale of the HP Touchpad when they all started to figure it out. Most people just don’t need all the most cutting edge specs thrown together in a tablet, and they’d be willing to pay much less for 80% of the functionality.

There are manufacturers who are even starting to release $100  Android 4.0 tablets right now. I believe Ice Cream Sandwich will be a big factor in helping Android capture even more market share in 2012, together with these lower-end tablets. Of course, we’ll still be able to see more expensive tablets at $400-$500 tablets that will better compete with the iPad in features for people who want the most cutting edge tech in their tablets, such as quad core chips, Full HD displays, and so on. This year should be the year when Android finally surpasses the iPad in market share.

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Many users of the Acer Iconia Tab A100 may now fire up their devices to get the Android 3.2.1 update. Users from France, Italy and Japan have noted the Honeycomb update availability on their tablets.

The on-the-air update is a 244MB download and to check if it’s available for your device, just go to Menu > Settings > About Phone then tap on Check Now at System Update to get your download started.

The minor update may not be some are waiting for, with Ice Cream Sandwich at the top of their list. But the latest build is still a welcome development as Acer seeks to improve the user experience on their tablet.

The A100 is one of many top bets on the Android platform when it comes to tablets, with its NVIDIA Tegra 2 chipset and 1 Ghz dual core processor. It even sports a 5 megapixel shooter at the back and 2MP in front.

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The ZTE Optik has made an appearance in the latest Sprint Playbook edition, and it’s hitting the tablet market at the right price! Sprint is dropping WiMax support in favor of their LTE network that should be live by June, this will be a 3G-only device. For a 7-inch tablet, the spec’s are not to shabby either.

• 1.2 GHz dual-core CPU
• 16 GB internal memory
• 1 GB RAM
• 7-inch display
• microSD card support
• 4000 mAh battery
• Android 3.2 (Honeycomb)

Of course with all the higher spec-ed and better featured tablets we just saw at ICS earlier this month, this one won’t be selling like hot cakes for long. But for just $99 it’s a great buy, even if it does come with Android 3.2, but I suspect an Ice Cream Sandwich update is coming soon.

The ZTE Optik will be available online starting February 5th, and in stores on March 11th. So if you’re a bit skeptical, wait until March 11th and head to your nearest Sprint store and give ti a test-drive before you buy it. Of course you can always return it too. Who’s interested? I certainly am and can’t wait to give it a nice thorough test-drive.

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