IDC, a research group, has released a report that shows that Apple may be losing some of the tablet market. Apple shipped 22.9m iPads (including the mini) in Q4 2012 which means that although it’s more than 2011 (a growth of 48%) it’s not enough for them to keep their above 50% marketshare. They now have 44% of the market.

Many have attributed the fall to Samsung, who managed to triple their shipments this year giving them 7.9 million sales and 15% marketshare (in 2011 it was 7%). Other manufacturers also saw an increase, such as Asus who are behind the Transformer line and the Nexus 7 who now have 5.8% of the market.

Apple is still ahead of any single manufacturer but given that almost all the rival devices are running Android, we can now say the Android tablets are more popular than iOS tablets. Why? I’d put it down to price – you can pick up a pretty decent Android tablet for around $200 but the cheapest iPad is $329 (mini, Wi-Fi 16GB). Android is still lacking when it comes to tablet apps though, and iOS will continue to strive in the tablet market because of this.