Acer chairman J.T. Wang recently predicted that Apple’s share of the tablet market would decline precipitously as new rivals emerge, falling from nearly 100% to 20 or 30%. However, J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz doesn’t think the iPad will dip below 50% anytime in the foreseeable future, reports “All Things D” (http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20101008/tk-apple-will-control-half-of-the-tablet-market-tk/?reflink=ATD_yahoo_ticker).
“The iPad’s sales momentum out of the gate has been unprecedented for a new product, and there appears to be no boundaries to the use case for the device, meaning the adoption curve could remain steep beyond the near term,” he said in a note to clients. “We think that the iPad’s form factor, technology, and content ecosystem could help the company retain 50% of the tablet market next year, and anything above that number could represent a significant source of upside to our estimates.”
For fiscal 2011, Moskowitz estimates iPad unit sales could hit 22.2 million, assuming Apple retains 50% share of a tablet market of approximately 45-50 million units.