Media tablet shipments in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) posted a robust growth of 394% year-over-year, according to International Data Corporation (IDC).
IDC said that the growth brought the shipments to 4.4 million units in Q2 2011, ahead of forecast at 3.7 million, representing an increase of 394% compared with the same quarter last year and up 82% compared with Q1 2011.
IDC said that the growth in sales was fueled by renewed demand in Q2 after consumers adopted a wait and watch attitude in the softer than expected 1Q.
Stronger than expected trends were driven primarily by soaring demand for the iPad 2, while the new models launching with Android Honeycomb further propelled the growth, said IDC.
Apple dominated across the region with its iPad2. However, IDC pointed ot that Android shipments did not meet expectations and reached fewer than 1.4 million units, despite low price points starting from €99.
Among the new Android entrants, Acer registered initial surge in demand, but slowed down later. ASUS Eee Pad Transformer proved to be one of the most successful Android models, and ASUS could have sold more if supply was not constrained, said IDC. French vendor Archos continued to expand both from a product range and go-to-market standpoint, it added.
The PlayBook from RIM became available at the end of June 2011, with initial sell-in reaching 93,000 in 2Q11.
IDC Personal Computing Group research manager Eszter Morvay said it is expected that the EMEA media tablet market will continue to enjoy robust expansion, with shipments forecast to reach close to 22 million units, representing €9.1 billion in value in 2011.
Morvay said, "The second half of the year will see a further expansion of product availability, which will lead to accelerating competition and more aggressive price points. The Christmas season in particular is expected to be very buoyant with vendors positioning their products as the perfect Christmas gift."
IDC estimates EMEA media tablets shipments to reach 33 million units in 2012, an increase of 53%, representing a value of €13.1 billion, up 44% compared with 2011.
