Android Tablets Will Grow 134 Percent in 2012

A new report on DigiTimes maintains that tablets running the Android operating system from Google are poised to grow at a whopping 134% in 2012 compared to 2011. The growth rate for Android tablet is expected to be larger than Apple’s estimated 55% year-over-year growth for 2012.

Analysts expect that Android tablet-makers will ship over 44 or 45 million tablets running Android in 2012, up from the 19-20 million expected to be sold in 2011. These tablets will be given a boost with Google’s forthcoming Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and new dual-core and quad-core processors with enhanced graphics capabilities from Qualcomm, NVIDIA, and Texas Instruments running on the ARM platform.

In contrast, Apple is expected to ship as many as 55 million iPad tablets next year, an increase from the 36 million tablets that the iOS-maker is expected to have sold this year. In its most recent quarter, Apple had announced that it has sold–not shipped–over 9 million iPad tablets, continuing to maintain its leadership in the tablet market.

Currently, high prices for Android tablets along with a lack of clear understanding on consumer needs have led to slow adoption of Honeycomb devices. Amazon is expected to enter the Android tablet market with its own device, which can be a big boost to Android, later this year.

Though Android may be growing fast, the market share for Android tablets is still fragmented between multiple vendors, with each tablet-maker only getting a small piece of the tablet pie whereas Apple controls the entire iOS/iPad market.