Apple’s third installment of the already legendary iPad clan is rumored to have been penciled in for unveiling as early as next month, though in the eyes of the consumer and indeed the technology community in general really cannot arrive quickly enough.
While the iPad and iPad 2 have of course enjoyed entirely unchallenged sovereignty in the tablet PC stakes ever since the concept was first dreamed up by Steve Jobs himself, Google’s Android is in hot pursuit for its own piece of the pie – and has never been closer.
Indeed, while Apple’s iPad 2 brought about a 100% increase in sales year on year, reaching 26.8 million devices this year compared to 10.7 million the year before, Android tripled its overall tablet PC sales volume.
Microsoft on the other hand accounted for approximately 400,000 total sales in the tablet market during 2011.
The latest figures come courtesy of an extensive report from a global analytics agency, suggesting that Apple may be given the proverbial run for its money in 2012 like never before. Overall sales of Android tablets saw exponentially higher growth in 2011 than those from Apple, reaching 10.7 million device sales from the 3.1 million of 2010. The increase saw the Android OS from Google increase to 39% from the 29% of a year earlier.
According to industry insiders and Foxconn sources, the iPad 3 is already in full production and is scheduled for an official launch in the coming weeks – perhaps to commemorate the late Apple founder Steve Jobs on his birthday of February 24th.
