After suffering a temporary dip in market share in the fourth quarter of 2011, Apple iOS is expected to reassert its commanding leadership of the worldwide tablet space in this year, according to a study by IHS iSuppli. After dipping to 55.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to a final estimate, the Apple OS' share of worldwide tablet sales, a segment including both media tablets and PC-type tablets is set to recover to 61 percent for the full year, about the same portion it had in 2011. Apple's dominating media tablet market share in the fourth quarter of 2011 had been diminished by a surge in sales of Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet, which is based on Google's Android operating system. This had caused Android's share of the tablet OS market to climb to 41.1 percent, up from 31.1 percent during the third quarter of 2011. However, as Apple reasserts its leadership, Android's share will decline to 38.4 percent for the full year. Sales of tablets this year including both media tablets and PC-type tablets will soar to 126.6 million units, up a remarkable 85 percent from 68.4 million units in 2011. The impressive performance of tablets this year builds on an even mightier 253 percent explosion last year from sales of 19.4 million units in 2010. Tablet sales will rise another 63 percent next year, on their way to 360.4 million units by 2016. Much of the growth in the future will come from the value segment, but the performance sector will provide the stronger challenge to traditional PCs in both business and consumer markets. Overall, the growth last year of media tablets dwarfed that of tablet PCs, and media tablet sales will continue to outperform those of tablet PCs in this year. By next year, tablet PC growth will accelerate to nearly 160 percent, from a 60 percent increase for media tablets. PC tablets will still lag well behind their media tablet counterparts next year, numbering a little over 8 million units compared to more than 197 million units for media tablets.
