Now that the holiday season is over, smartphone and tablet numbers are beginning to be tallied up. Â There is some good news on the tablet front for Microsoft as the iPad’s market share fell by 7.1%, according to Chitika Insights.
For this report Chitika Insights surveryed millions of ad impressions from their ad network from December 1st to December 27th from the U.S. and Canada.
The biggest winners in smartphones were the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S3, each of which gained 1.11% and 1% market share respectively, leaving them heading the smartphone pack at 8.27% and 4.29% respectively.
However, it was the tablet market that saw the iPad suffer a shocking decline of 7.14% in market share, while the main beneficiary, the Kindle Fire gained 3.03% market share.
The Samsung Galaxy, Google Nexus and Microsoft Surface all saw gains of 1.38%, 0.92% and 0.17% respectively.
While iPads still hold a crushing 79% of the overall market, according to Chitika’s numbers, the significance of this report is the eroding of its hegemony in the market.
In a more wide open market, there will be more opportunities for Microsoft and its hardware partners to grow the market shares of Windows 8-based tablets.
To my mind, the coming Surface Pro and ‘convertible’ systems are still too expensive, nearer $1000 than $500. Â Systems like the Asus Vivo Tab Smart – at about $550 – may be the ones with the most sales in 2013.
Is there a chink in the iPad’s armor? Share your thoughts in the discussion below.
