Report: Android, others picking up share in UK tablet market

Though Apple's iPad® still leads the tablet market by a wide margin, devices based on Google's Android™ and other operating systems are closing the gap, according to data from market researcher Kantar Worldpanel Comtech.

The study shows that the iPad accounts for nearly three-quarters of the UK tablet market. However, this lead is expected to slip in the coming years as more devices emerge to challenge the iPad's dominance.

According to Kantar Worldpanel Comtech, 3.6 million people in the UK owned a tablet as of September 2011, accounting for about 7.6 percent of the population. This is three times the number of people who owned tablets in November 2010.

As the number of tablet buyers continues to grow, more are shifting away from the current market leader. According to the research firm, nearly half of potential tablet owners say they will buy a device not based on iOS®.

Going forward, a number of factors are expected to shape consumers' tablet purchasing decisions, including functionality, connectivity capabilities and, of course, brand recognition. One major factor, according to Nvidia® CEO Jen Hsun Huang, is the emergence of quad-core processors for tablets. Huang expects the first quad-core tablets to arrive before the 2011 holiday season, according to the Wall Street Journal.