Apple has become so ridiculously successful that it competes with itself. The Cupertino-based company saw its tablet market share trimmed in the fourth-quarter, as the new iPhone 4S proved to be the strongest competitor for the iPad during the final three months of 2011, according to a new study from IHS iSuppli Research.
Apple shipped out 15.4 million iPads and iPad 2s during the fourth quarter of 2011 – extremely impressive numbers for any company – but the iPad maker actually dropped market share, as its global media tablet market went down 7 percentage points. While the Kindle Fire was also released during that period but the report doesn’t believe this was the reason for Apple’s market share drop.
“However, the primary alternative wasn’t the Kindle Fire—which debuted to solid sales in the fourth quarter—but Apple’s own iPhone 4S smartphone,” Rhoda Alexander, senior manager, tablet and monitor research for IHS said. “The rollout of the iPhone 4S in October generated intense competition for Apple purchasers’ disposable income, doing more to limit iPad shipment growth than competition from the Kindle Fire and other media tablets.”
Now we all know Apple products are raking it in, but the more interesting number that stuck out to me was the Kindle Fire. The Amazon tablet shipped nearly 4 million units, which isn’t Apple numbers but still enough to notice.




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