Amazon is slowly moving in on Apple’s tablet market share. According to a recent Yankee Group survey, Amazon is the second most desirable vendor among consumers planning to buy a tablet. Of course Apple still remains the tablet leader by a wide margin, with 47 percent of U.S. consumers citing the brand. Amazon, however, is second with a 7 percent share, just ahead of Samsung’s 6 percent and Hewlett-Packard’s 3 percent.
Seven percent seems like a tiny number to tout, but if you look at the numbers as a whole, you’d have to give Amazon its props. Think about it. Amazon is still coming in second ahead of huge conglomerates such as Samsung and HP — who have millions, even billions (in Sammy’s case) of dollars for marketing its products.
Make no mistake, we don’t think a 7 percent purchase intent is something Amazon should be comfortable with. But since Amazon was ahead of the curve with the sub-$200 price bracket, the company should be sitting pretty for the time being. The $200 price tag for a tablet is a huge area to exploit, Google realized this when it launched its Nexus 7 tab (selling millions already); even Apple eventually came around to sell a cheaper and smaller iPad.
The “low-end” tablet market is expected to grow, and Amazon could capture 20 percent of it. That type of clout can be great for the online merchant’s book and video content. Hell, parts may start to become more cheaper, too. It will be interesting to see where Amazon’s numbers will be the same time next year.
[Yankee Group; via BGR]