Tablets – Google on top?

Android now has huge share in tablets but is it really Google?

• The latest data on the tablet market shows that Android is now far and away the biggest platform shipping with around 70% market share.
• Apple is on around 25% with Microsoft making up almost all of the difference.
• This is a substantial change from last year when Android and iOS were virtually neck and neck.
• Before one gets excited about how Google is taking over the tablet market 2 questions have to be asked:
• First. Shipments are one thing but what about the installed base?
  • I suspect that there are still more iOS tablet in the hands of users than there are Android devices although I suspect that this will soon change.
  • The traffic data still indicates that iOS tablets are used far more than Android tablets.
  • This makes the iOS user base far more valuable to anyone trying to monetise traffic through advertising.
• Second. How many of those Android tablets does Google actually have access to?
  • Radio Free Mobile’s analysis indicates that while there will be around 1bn Android handsets in the hands of users by the end of this year, Google will have access to around 1/3 of them. (see here)
  • This is because only 54% of Android devices are Google compliant meaning that they can run the applications.
  • On top of this only 56% of Google compliant handsets are running Android 4.0 or better.
  • I have long been of the opinion that a device must be both Google compliant and running Android 4.0 or better in order for Google to monetise the device effectively.
  • I suspect that the same is true in tablets and initial research indicates that, like in handsets, Google has access to only a fraction of these devices.
• I suspect that Google will make much of its new found dominance of tablets on its next earnings call but the reality is, in fact, very different.
• This is both good and bad for Google.
• Bad, because the company is spinning a story that is simply not accurate but good because there is substantial upside to mobile revenues if Google can work out how to get access to the majority of Android devices that currently pass it by.
• I remain indifferent to Google, preferring Yahoo, but I can see scope for a bounce in 2014 if Google to get access to the devices that it currently misses.