Hasta La Gadget!

Apple’s iPad continues to dominate the tablet market despite the best efforts of the Android competition, new research suggests, with record-setting sales of the iOS slate outshining even Samsung’s buoyant numbers. Although mature markets are showing signs of iPad saturation, developing markets are “clearly more than making up the difference” research firm IDC claims, with its 68.2-percent marketshare in Q2 2012 more than seven times that of Samsung.

In fact, no other individual tablet manufacturer has broken the double-digit marketshare point, IDC’s figures suggest, with Samsung in distant second place with 9.6-percent in the last quarter. “The vast majority of consumers continue to favor the iPad over competitors,” IDC concludes, “and Apple is seeing increasingly strong interest in the device from vertical markets—especially education.”

Nonetheless, Apple isn’t the only firm to see sterling slate shipment surges. Samsung grew 117.6-percent year-on-year, while ASUS followed shortly behind with 115.5-percent growth (though still ended the quarter with a mere 3.4-percent of the tablet market. Acer ditched 2.7-percent of its total marketshare, however.

However, the second half of the year could see things get a whole lot more interesting. Microsoft’s new version of Windows is expected to bring a gush of fresh tablets, while Apple and Amazon are each expected to launch new models as well.

“In addition to major new products from Amazon and quite likely Apple, we can also expect an influx of Microsoft Windows 8 and Windows RT-based tablets starting in late October,” IDC’s Bob O’Donnell said in a statement, warning that “there’s a real risk that people will have too many options from which to choose this holiday season.”

That surfeit of choice may end up working in Apple’s favor, O’Donnell argues, as overwhelmed would-be tableteers give up on trying to figure out which model is best and simply opt for the one most people have. “Consumers baffled by the differences between Amazon and Google versions of Android, or Windows 8 and Windows RT, may well default to market leader Apple” the analyst says, “or they may simply choose to remain on the sideline for another cycle.”

iPad dominance grows: Apple could be “default” choice amid tablet gush is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

After Amazon launched its $199 Kindle Fire tablet last autumn, a lot of observers thought it could prove to be the competition to Apple’s iPad that other Android tablets had so far failed to deliver. Some numbers out from IDC today, however, show that as Amazon continues to sell the device in the U.S. alone, that has failed to become the case, as Apple continues to increase its worldwide market share against competitors.

Quarterly tablet shipments worldwide (defined by IDC as devices sent through to distribution channels  like operators, retailers or end users) totalled 25 million, with Apple, on the back of the new iPad launch in March, blowing everyone out of the water with record-breaking shipments of 17 million+ iPad tablets, working out to a 68% market share (up by nearly 7 percentage points on last year). Ironically, as competition continues to increase, IDC thinks that might only strengthen Apple’s position, with “baffled” consumers faced with “too many options” opting instead for the market leader.

After a a IDC “sluggish” Q1, IDC said that Amazon rebounded this quarter with estimated shipments of 1.3 million units, enough to give it a number-three ranking after Samsung’s 2.4 million sales worldwide, and putting it ahead of other companies that also sell globally, Asus and Acer — signs that seem to indicate that if Amazon had rolled out the tablet more widely, it might have made significant headway.

(As a point of comparison, Strategy Analytics, which ranks by platform not vendor, gave Apple essentially the same marketshare last week).

Overall tablet shipments continue to grow at a stronger pace than smartphones at the moment. IDC says that globally tablet shipments were up by 66% on the same quarter in 2011 (smartphone shipments grew by about 32%), and the largest players are outpacing that: Apple saw growth of 84%; Samsung saw growth of 118%; and Asus was up by 116%. Amazon only launched its tablet in Q4 2011 so has no comparative number.

Perhaps because it doesn’t have a strong-enough global competitor, Apple continues to be the consumers’ preferred tablet choice, with the company capitalizing on that by making further inroads into particular segments. “The vast majority of consumers continue to favor the iPad over competitors, and Apple is seeing increasingly strong interest in the device from vertical markets—especially education,” noted Tom Mainelli, IDC’s research director for mobile connected devices, in a statement. But he also points out, as Apple’s Tim Cook did, that iPad shipments in mature markets are slowing down, although growth in emerging markets “is clearly more than making up the difference.”

There are a few curve balls that could come into play in the second half of the year, IDC notes.

For starters, there is the Google/ASUS co-branded Nexus 7 tablet. These only began shipping recently and are now facing production delays, although early reviews have been largely very positive, they saw huge pre-order demand and the price is Amazon-right: $199.

Another is the fact that we may well see a bigger tablet from Amazon, a smaller tablet from Apple, and Windows 8 tablets enter the market. “In addition to major new products from Amazon and quite likely Apple, we can also expect an influx of Microsoft Windows 8 and Windows RT-based tablets starting in late October,” writes Bob O’Donnell, IDC vice president for clients and displays.

Ironically, rather than shaking up the market, he thinks this could actually be to Apple’s advantage: “If anything, there’s a real risk that people will have too many options from which to choose this holiday season. Consumers baffled by the differences between Amazon and Google versions of Android, or Windows 8 and Windows RT, may well default to market leader Apple,” he writes. “Or they may simply choose to remain on the sideline for another cycle.”

Scientists drilling into the seabed off the coast of Antarctica have made a very interesting discovery that was announced this week. The sediment cores obtained during the drilling reveal that 52 million years ago a rainforest grew in Antarctica. 52 million years is most definitely a long time, but changing from a tropical rain forest to a constantly frozen land is a huge change in temperature.

The scientists are using the discovery as a warning of global warming saying that Antarctica could be ice-free again within decades. The sediment cores the team of researchers recovered revealed fossilized pollens. According to the scientists, those pollens came from a near-tropical forest that covered the entire continent of Antarctica during the Eocene period between 34 and 56 million years ago.

An Australian scientist named Kevin Welsh, who was part of the 2010 expedition, said that his team had discovered temperature-sensitive molecules in the cores showing that Antarctica was as warm at around 68°F 52 million years ago. Welsh and his team believe that higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere millions of years ago were the major reason that Antarctica was much warmer than it was today.

The scientist estimates that carbon dioxide during the time when Antarctica was warm reached between 992 to a couple thousand parts per million on the continent of Antarctica. CO2 levels today are estimated to be at about 395 ppm on the continent. Scientists believe that the ice that covers Antarctica today is between 1.9 and 25 miles thick with formation believed to have occurred about 34 million years ago.

[via Google]

Ancient rain forest discovered in sediment cores from Antarctic seabed is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Samsung is the top mobile device brand of Q2 in the US, according to new research, while Android continues to dominate the smartphone market, though Apple’s iOS is growing faster than Google’s platform. Samsung cellphones comprised 25.6-percent of US device ownership between April and June 2012, comScore‘s research found, with LG in second place with 18.8-percent and Apple in third with 15.4-percent. However, it’s not all good news for the Koreans, whose market share is headed in the wrong direction versus Apple’s.

In fact, Samsung’s mobile position dipped 0.4-percent quarter-on-quarter, while LG’s dropped 0.5-percent. In contrast, Apple’s share rose 1.4-percent – despite the fact that the company only offers three devices and no low-cost smartphones.

Looking at smartphones specifically, Android maintains its lead, growing 0.6-percent to 51.6-percent of the 110m devices in the US. Apple’s iOS, however, rose more – up 1.7-percent – to take 32.4-percent of the smartphone market and extending its lead over third place RIM, which dipped 1.6-percent. Microsoft still struggles in forth place, dropping 0.1-percent to just 3.8-percent share.

comScore bases its figures on more than 30,000 surveyed mobile device owners in the US. The company also found that mobile app downloads and listening to music rose in popularity the most among usage patterns, though text messaging remains the most popular activity.

Samsung top US phone firm but Apple growing fastest claims research is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Global technology research firm Strategy Analytics has published a report today revealing that Android’s U.S. market share has lost its ground to iOS, falling from 60 percent in the second quarter of 2011 to 56 percent in Q2 this year. Albeit Android continues to be the number one platform in the U.S. in terms of volume, its market share has reportedly declined. Apple’s U.S market share, on the other hand, has grown up to ten points from 23 percent in the second quarter of 2011 to 33 percent in the second quarter of this year.

Additionally, Strategy Analytics also added that total smartphone shipments went down by 5 percent per annum, giving way to over 23.8 million units (from 25.2 million) in the U.S. during the second quarter of 2012. The firm notes that this is one of the slowest growth rates in the U.S. smartphone market. With rumors of an iPhone 5 expected to arrive later this year, it will be interesting to see how Android will manage to keep its disposition in the U.S. market. Meanwhile, the research also shows RIM and its BlackBerry OS dropping from 11 percent to 7 percent over the past year. Strategy Analytics says that this is RIM’s lowest level in history.

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