which reveal that the iPad Mini accounted for 60 percent of Apple's first quarter iOS sales.
According to Gartner, customers are starting to opt for budget rather than premium tablets, a shift that has worked in the favour of the iPad Mini. The firm's statistics reveal that the 7.9in iPad represented 60 percent of overall iOS sales in the first quarter this year, outselling both the iPhone and the 9.7in iPad.
Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner said, "The increased availability of lower priced basic tablets, plus the value add shifting to software rather than hardware will result in the lifetimes of premium tablets extending as they remain active in the household for longer."
Although Apple's iPad Mini has made quite an impact since its release, Gartner's statistics show that Android still leads in device shipments in figures covering smartphone, tablet and PC devices.
Gartner predicts that 866,781 devices will be shipped running Google's Android operating system in 2013, compared to 339,545 Windows devices and 296,356 running iOS or Mac OS X.
While it might be surprising to some that Windows has such a lead over Apple that gap is likely to close, with the analyst outfit's 2014 forecast showing that 278,142 Windows devices are likely to be shipped next year, compared to 354,849 Appleproducts. Android unsurprisingly will increase its lead even more in 2014, apparently, with Gartner predicting it will hit over a billion annual shipments.
Interestingly, Carolina Milanesi, research VP at Gartner said, "Apple is currently the more homogeneous presence across all device segments, while 90 percent of Android sales are currently in the mobile phone market and 85 percent of Microsoft sales are in the PC market."
Unsurprisingly, the firm also noted that PC shipments are likely to decline a further 10.6 percent in 2013, while in stark contrast the tablet market is expected to grow 67.9 percent and the smartphone market 4.3 percent. µ
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