Record Sales for Tablets and eReaders in Fourth Quarter 2010

2010 was a big year for technology and. according to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker, it was also a good year for tablets and eReaders. According to the IDC, 10.1 million media tablets were shipped in the fourth quarter of 2010 alone which was more than double the 4.5 million shipped in the third quarter. Apple saw a decrease in shares from 93% to 73% but still remained on top. The Galaxy Tab from Samsung was the main contender against the iPad, beating other players to market and grabbing more than 17% share of the market.

The Tracker also showed that the market for eReaders increased significantly in the fourth quarter. Amazon's Kindle saw strong sales and other contributers, like Pandigital, Barnes & Noble, Hanvon and Sony, contributed to the market growth.

The eReader market more than doubled in volume in the fourth quarter from the third quarter with over 6 million units shipped for the fourth quarter. This brought the total of eReaders shipped for the year to 12.8 million units. eReader shipments also increased over 325% from 2009 when there were only around 3 million units shipped. This type of growth reflects a strong growth of competition in the market and an increasing interest in the category.

According to Loren Loverde, Vice President of Consumer Device Trackers, "Strong holiday sales of media tablets were in line with IDC projections and strong consumer interest in the category while device vendors scrambled to offer products competitive with Apple's iPad and now iPad2. Media Tablets are on pace to reach shipments of roughly 50 million units in 2011."

According to the IDC, the United States, Western Europe and Asia/Pacific (not counting Japan) accounted for 89% of all media tablet shipments in the fourth quarter. Even though the United States was the largest country market, Western Europe and Asia/Pacific increased almost twice as fast from the third quarter to the fourth quarter with Western Europe seeing a slightly larger jump in shipments in the fourth quarter.

Retailers were the highest channel of shipments in the fourth quarter of 2010 followed by direct sales and telco shares. Telco operators, which is a new channel for media tablets, accounted for nearly 14% of all shipments in the 2010 fourth quarter following the only 1% share seen in the third quarter.

Source: Engadget - IDC: 18 million tablets, 12 million e-readers shipped in 2010

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