Luke Lin, DIGITIMES Research

 

Digitimes Research has analyzed figures from Google about the company's certified devices that have connected to Android Market each month, and pointed out that monthly sales of Google certified Android tablets grew from an average of less than one million units in the second quarter of 2011 to 1.5 million units in August, according to senior analyst of Digitimes Research, Luke Lin.

Within the figures, monthly sales of Android 3.x-based tablets are approaching the level of 7-inch Android 2.x-based products, and total sales of Google-certified Android tablets in the third quarter are expected to reach 4.5-5 million units, accounting for about the 33%-50% of iPad's sales during the same period, while the annual sales are only expected to match 33% to 40% of iPad's sales, Lin noted.

Lin pointed out that Android-based smartphones took two years after launch to surpass iPhone in terms of shipments and sales in 2010 and are currently still seeing the gap with iPhone expanding.

In the future, Lin believes Google's upcoming Android operating system codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich, which will unify its smartphone and tablet platforms into one system, and smartphone's strong software application ecosystem, which can quickly enhance applications to support tablet products, will help resolve the issues about Android tablets lacking support for software applications.

With Android tablets' hardware design and price point to gradually reach a consumer satisfying point, Android tablets should see the same come-from-behind results as Android smartphones, and enjoy similar shipment and sale volumes as iPad in 2012, Lin added.