iPad 3 will help Apple grab 70 percent of the tablet market in 2012

We knew this Android thing was kind of a big deal, right? Well due to the fact that no other real competitor has stepped up to try and challenge Apple and Android, the two have benefited from the lack of competition in the tablet market. It was originally thought back in 2010 that both would lose market share in the tablet market due to outside competition.

Apple continued to win out in terms of tablet market share this past quarter, according to the latest figures from ABI Research, with a 55 percent share of all shipments during the period. That’s a lead it has had since 2010 when the iPad was introduced, but it’s also the slimmest lead it’s ever had, and represents a dip of 14 percent versus the previous quarter.

Apple’s lead in the tablet market took its first serious dent in Q3, according to estimates from analyst IDC, based on tablet shipments (rather than sales).

Android tablet computers will grow from 32 percent global market share in the third quarter to an estimated 40.3 percent through the fourth quarter, reducing Apple's iPad share to 59 percent, projects IDC. The growth in Android tablets is due largely to the popularity of the low-cost Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet, says the study....

Forrester estimates that Apple's iPad owns 30 percent of the European tablet market, with Android tablets, HP's Touchpad, and RIM's Playbook competing for the remaining 30 percent. Meanwhile, Apple won a preliminary injunction in a German court to keep Samsung from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android tablet in most of the European Union, says a report....

Written by: Stuart Corner | Published in: MarketMarket research firm Infonetics is predicting that Apple will cut the price of its new iPad mini and reduce the tablet market to a trio comprising Apple, Amazon and Google.

Apple’s iPad is the primary driver responsible for a 56 percent annual bump in shipments in the tablet display market, according to a new report from supply chain research firm IHS.

Microsoft has managed to build the Surface RT tablet in such a way that it not only competes directly against Apple's iPad, but also has a higher profit margin than Apple's flagship tablet.

Google appears to be prepping an Android-based tablet device, says The New York Times. Meanwhile, a study by IMS Research predicts that at year's end, Apple's iPad will own 51 percent of the $3.6 billion tablet PC market, with Android taking 24 percent....