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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1. Strategy Analytics: Android Tablets Capture a Record 39% Market Share in Q4 2011

2. Android Tablets are Gaining on the Ipad

3. Kindle Fire Stole Two Million Units from iPad Sales Last Quarter