Ice Cream Sandwich Android: New OS Helps Other Tablets Catch Up iPad 2

By Elton Jones, Christian Post Reporter Friday, October 21, 2011

Android's latest operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich, has apparently helped other computer tablets compete with Apple's iPad.

Market research firm Strategy Analytics’ recent report notes that Google’s Android-based tablets gained market share in the iPad dominated tablet market during the third quarter of 2011.

Such tablets include Samsung's Galaxy family of tablets, which have been the focus of patent related litigation's between Apple and Samsung.

Strategy Analytics claims that Android was up from its 2.3 percent share from the same three month period last year, to a 27 percent share of worldwide sales during the third quarter in 2011.

Neil Mawston, a London-based director for the Strategy Analytics, had this to say: "Amazon’s strategy of minimizing its hardware price is set to ignite the entry-level tablet segment and attract more mass-market consumers."

Apple's iPad market share during Q3 2011 reportedly fell from 96 percent to 67 percent.

Samsung's line of Galaxy tablets currently account for 9 percent of the total tablet market.

Strategy Analytics also believes that Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet will also increase Android tablet sales, estimating the company will sell more than 15 million units by 2013.

A separate report, titled the "Good Technology Device Activations Report" was released for Q3 2011. It noted that enterprise users are clearly choosing iPad over the alternatives, noting "iOS tablets represent over 96 percent of total tablet activations."

"While more and more devices running the tablet-tuned Honeycomb version of Google’s Android operating system have been released, Android tablet activations within Good’s customer base remain in the realm of a rounding error compared to what we’re seeing with the iPad and iPad 2," the report also said.

Ice Cream Sandwich is Google's latest operating system that is present on several computer tablets and smartphones. It was specifically designed to work simultaneously on both smartphones and tablets.

Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone happens to be one of the handheld devices using Google's OS.

Android-powered tablets may soon overtake Apple's top spot for the most bought tablets on the market.