Apple‘s iOS will account for 69% of media tablet OS in 2011, and will represent 47% of the media tablet market in 2015, according to a new report by Gartner.
The new report highlights that Apple will continue to lead the worldwide media tablet through 2015, due to the success of its iPad.
Gartner analysts said Apple iPad did to the tablet PC market what the iPhone did to the smartphone market: re-invented it.
Google’s Android OS is forecast to increase its worldwide share of the media tablet market from 20% in 2011 to 39% in 2015.
Analysts said Google’s decision not to open up the Honeycomb, its first OS version dedicated to tablets, to third parties will prevent fragmentation, but it will also slow the price decline and ultimately cap market share.
Gartner research vice- president Carolina Milanesi said many are making the same mistake that was made in the first response wave to the iPhone, as they are prioritising hardware features over applications, services and overall user experience.
"Tablets will be much more dependent on the latter than smartphones have been, and the sooner vendors realise that the better chance they have to compete head-to-head with Apple," Milanesi said.
The research firm said that with the migration of Blackberry devices to QNX, the OS used on the Blackberry PlayBook in 2012, RIM will be able to offer users a consistent experience across its whole product portfolio and create a single developer community.
While QNX is a strong platform that delivers on performance, graphics and multitasking features, Gartner analysts said success in the media tablet market will be driven by richness of ecosystem.
Gartner analysts said platforms such as MeeGo and WebOS, which currently have a weak presence in the smartphone market, will have a limited appeal unless they can grow that business.
