Android (operating system) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Adoption on tablets

The first-generation Nexus 7 tablet, running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

Despite its success on smartphones, initially Android tablet adoption was slow.^[337] One of the main causes was the chicken or the eggsituation where consumers were hesitant to buy an Android tablet due to a lack of high quality tablet applications, but developers were hesitant to spend time and resources developing tablet applications until there was a significant market for them.^[338][339] The content and app "ecosystem" proved more important than hardware specs as the selling point for tablets. Due to the lack of Android tablet-specific applications in 2011, early Android tablets had to make do with existing smartphone applications that were ill-suited to larger screen sizes, whereas the dominance of Apple's iPad was reinforced by the large number of tablet-specific iOS applications.^[339][340]

Despite app support in its infancy, a considerable number of Android tablets, like the Barnes & Noble Nook (alongside those using other operating systems, such as the HP TouchPad and BlackBerry PlayBook) were rushed out to market in an attempt to capitalize on the success of the iPad.^[339] InfoWorld has suggested that some Android manufacturers initially treated their first tablets as a "Frankenphone business", a short-term low-investment opportunity by placing a smartphone-optimized Android OS (before Android 3.0 Honeycomb for tablets was available) on a device while neglecting user interface. This approach, such as with the Dell Streak, failed to gain market traction with consumers as well as damaging the early reputation of Android tablets.^[341][342] Furthermore, several Android tablets such as the Motorola Xoom were priced the same or higher than the iPad, which hurt sales. An exception was the Amazon Kindle Fire, which relied upon lower pricing as well as access to Amazon's ecosystem of applications and content.^[339][343]

This began to change in 2012, with the release of the affordable Nexus 7 and a push by Google for developers to write better tablet applications.^[344] According to International Data Corporation, shipments of Android-powered tablets surpassed iPads in Q3 2012.^[345]

Barnes & Noble Nookrunning Android

As of the end of 2013, over 191.6 million Android tablets had sold in three years since 2011.^[346][347] This made Android tablets the most-sold type of tablet in 2013, surpassing iPads in the second quarter of 2013.^[348]

According to StatCounter's web use statistics, as of August 15, 2017, Android tablets represent the majority of tablet devices used in South America (57.46%)^[349] and Africa (69.08%),^[350] while being a distant second to iOS in North America (25.29%) and Europe (32.64%), despite having sizeable majorities in many Central American, Caribbean, and Eastern European states.^[351]) and representing the majority in Asia (51.25%)^[352] notably in India (65.98%)^[353] and Indonesia (82.18%).^[354] Android is an extremely distant second at 11.93% in Oceania as well, mostly due to Australia (10.71%) and New Zealand (16.9%), while in some countries such as Nauru over 80% of tablets are believed to use Android.^[355] As well, Android is more often than not used by the minority of web users in Antarctica, which has no permanent population.^[356]

In March 2016, Galen Gruman of InfoWorld stated that Android devices could be a "real part of your business [..] there's no longer a reason to keep Android at arm's length. It can now be as integral to your mobile portfolio as Apple's iOS devices are".^[357] A year earlier, Gruman had stated that Microsoft's own mobile Office apps were "better on iOS and Android" than on Microsoft's own Windows 10devices.^[358]