Strategy Analytics: Android tablet shipments up to 67% in Q2 2013, iOS fell to 28.3%, and Windows secured 4.5%

Global tablet shipments in Q2 2013 reached 51.7 million units, up 43 percent from 36.1 million in Q2 2012. Breaking those numbers down, Android secured a whopping 67 percent global share, Apple’s iOS grabbed 28.3 percent, and Windows secured 4.5 percent.

Here’s the full breakdown:

The latest figures are from Strategy Analytics, which says Google’s Android is making steady progress thanks to hardware partners like Samsung and Amazon. Meanwhile, Apple struggled this past quarter as it didn’t have any new iPads to sell.

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“Apple iOS shipments were 14.6 million iPads in Q2 2013 which declined 14 percent annually,” Peter King, Director of Tablets at Strategy Analytics, said in a statement. “In the same quarter a year ago the first Retina display iPads were launched which could partly explain the decline as there were no new models in this quarter. However, to compensate that, iPad Mini which was not available a year ago, now freely available was expected to take the figure higher than 14.6 million.”

As for Microsoft, Strategy Analytics speculates there may be an uptick in Windows RT shipments this quarter due to price cuts by the company’s partners and the $150 price slash for the Surface RT. Nevertheless, the shortage of apps “continues to be a problem, with seemingly little incentive for developers to work on the platform.”

With Windows not a big threat (yet?) Android is certainly making the same progress in tablets as it did in smartphones, slowly but surely usurping iOS. On the flipside, one quarter is hardly enough to set a trend, especially in such a relatively new market.

In fact, NPD today released projections that suggest shipments of tablets could reach nearly 364 million worldwide in 2014, more than double the projected 177 million shipments of notebook PCs and ultrabooks. By 2017, NPD expects tablet PC shipments to reach 589 million, while notebook PCs and ultrabooks will remain relatively flat at 176 million.

Here are those expectations in graph form:

This cannibalization isn’t surprising in the slightest. Tablet growth is fueled by increased adoption in emerging regions thanks to lower prices, longer battery life, and “more convenient usage models” according to NPD.

“The PC market is clearly shifting away from notebooks and toward tablets,” Richard Shim, senior analyst with NPD DisplaySearch, said in a statement. “Supply chain indications reveal that previously planned production of notebook PCs is being pulled back due to declining adoption and that brands are gradually increasing the number of tablet PC models in their product mixes. Panel and finished goods suppliers are also increasing production of displays and other components for tablets in order to keep up with the market changes.”

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