To all intents and purposes Apple invented the tablet market. There may have been various tablets on offer before the iPad was released, but you could count the people that used them, or at least *enjoyed* using them, on one hand. Since the release of the first iPad in 2010 everyone else has been playing catchup, but it looks like they may finally have done so.
According to the latest stats from ABI Research, Apple still had the lead with 55% of all tablets sold last quarter, a dip of a whole 14% since the quarter before. It appears the release of the Amazon Fire HD along with Google’s own Nexus 7 and Nexus 10, the competition in the tablet space has finally arrived, and people are starting to question whether buying an iPad is worth the “Apple Tax” – which is about a 30% mark up for tablets and even more for mobile phones. If this trend continues, Android will have overtaken iOS as the most popular tablet OS midway through 2013. And we don;t know which market Windows 8 tablets will eat away at yet.