So, honeymoon is over. Apple created the market and profited from being their alone, but now it's changing. And it's iPad mini that helps them atm.

So, in essence, Android - available on multiple cheap tablets from many manufacturers making little to no profit on each sale - overtakes the iPad - which has a handful of models from one manufacturer, raking in huge profits on each sale.

Seems about right.

Samsung's profits are up 40%.


Meanwhile Apple's profits have fallen.

And only fanboys are proud that they're contributing to huge profit margins. The rest of us welcome better value for money products.

Apple will just say no-one is using them. That's what they usually say. Didn't Cook say that he believes they're all in sock drawers? Yet I'm seeing people on the train and the ferry that I travel on using them. Usually for reading books. And a few of my friend's kids have these colourful bulky child friendly ones for their kids.

Apple, like vendors of many other types of product, offer a premium product for which some (actually, quite a lot) are willing to pay.

Are Apple not allowed to make a profit on a premium product?

that's not what I said.

Which Samsung tablet outsells the iPad?

*crickets*


My point still stands - put on the market a collective of many cheap tablets which, lets face it, would not exist without Apple, and of course the market share [to be clear, of the OS powering these tabs] will overtake that of a single vendor.

Agree, you can't compare iOS which is available on a very select basis against an operating system which is available on 100's if not 1000's of devices, in fact I'm suprised it's taken this long.

It's like saying there are more 1.6ltr engines on the road than 6ltr V12's.

I used to think Indian was the most popular takeaway food, until I discovered that every takeaway food combined is even more popular.

I think every Apple user acknowledges that with time ios will be a minority os much like Mac OS, it is still amazing that Apple Mac OS has a 6-8% user base worldwide against Windows which is used in just about every computer made!

The only people who seem to make a big thing about all this "Apple loosing market share etc" are non-apple users, who shouldn't really care any way.

I hink if/when Apple is pushed into a niche position on a mobile market a lot of people, those involved with Apple, too, will notice and care.

Yes I don't expect iOS to end up like OS but it will be in the minority it can't go any other way, unless Apple start making a cheap budget phone (rumours, its on its way) to cover more of the market.

Nah Chinese food is more popular without considering the others making up the numbers. The fact that there happen to be more Chinese restaurants and only one Indian restaurant doesn't change that.

Android is the new Windows. Apple have not taken on board past mistakes and are set to face a repeat of the Mac vs. Windows scenario in not one, but two separate markets...Just as in the mobile market, eventually sales of single Android tablets will surpass sales of iPads. The model which Apple staunchly follows means that they can never sustain market leadership for long and are facing a future as a niche product in the mobile and tablet markets, as they have become in the PC market.

Maybe next time it will be Google saving Apple from bankruptcy...

Except with most of the android tablet market you aren't getting better value products. Most of them are are cheaper but not really better value products as the quality is lacking. The Nexus is one of the few that gets the cost/quality comprise right but that's because Google aren't concerned at making a profit as their aim is to get a market share instead as they aren't a hardware company but a service company.

Debatable. Fortunately the current state of the market is leading to reduced profit margins for manufacturers, which means cheaper products for us. Its a matter of opinion of course, but I'd say any product sold at 40% margin is probably not offering value for money.

Unless Apple change what they did and allowed anyone to make a device with iOS on it then it was always inevitable that Android would takeover.

This is fantastic news. People are waking up to the alternative to the iPad. The good guy always wins in the end.

Yes, Google are such lovely people who do everything for the common good

Not really. They had the head start in apps, have the benefits of cheap scaled 'mass production', and have very low support costs via near 100% control.

Google just spent more of their income on innovative software and did not ban/remove near everything that impacts on corporate income growth.

Microsoft, currently headed in tandem along the walled garden route obviously has it worse.

The reason Android was going to take over was due to costs. You can get Android phones and tablets from around £50. That's how they grow their market share so well. If they only had expensive mobiles like the S4 available Apple would have a lot more share.

Except Microsoft make more money from Android devices than Google do, thanks to patent licensing.

The head of Blackberry pointed out this week that tablets are a 5-year market, which is probably true. Both iPad and Android tablets will be swept away and replaced sooner than we realise. Rumours of 3-dimensional gestures being built into iOS will be echoed by similar work going on in Google's campus. That work means something. The next set of devices will watch our hands and react accordingly. We no longer need to be touching a screen, which of course means that the screen doesn't need to be within reach of our fingers. Google Glass etc. are the beginnings of the next phase.

Never concentrate on what's selling now. It's all about the next big thing and the thing after that.

You could also get a Nokia Symbian phone dirt cheap as you could a Blackberry. Windows phone are dirt cheap too.

Its OK being cheap but strangely it seems, lower prices actually need more clout.
Funnily enough, laptop PCs are still big but the talk is all phones and tablets.

You still need to be good but without the price advantage and the choice of handsets available I still don't think Android would be where it is now. And the fact Android does not need to be paid for is a huge plus for manufatueres.

But as I said before I still think it was inevitable that Android would take the lead in overall market share.

It also problematically evens the Android manufacture playing field, and we well know market dominance is the route to longer term profits.