The intense competition from a growing number of competitors in the tablet market will continue to wear on Apple’s tablet market share.  A report from Strategy Analytics, a Boston-based research and consulting firm, describes a nearly 1000% increase in market share for Android tablets for the fourth quarter of 2010.

Director of Strategy Analytics, Neil Mawston report:

“Android tablet volumes experienced 2000 percent sequential growth and its global marketshare soared to a record 22 percent in Q4 2010. The Samsung Galaxy Tab was the main driver of Android’s success, as the model was launched in dozens of countries and promoted heavily by Samsung. Tablet makers like Android because of its perceived low cost and an accompanying range of compelling media services such as YouTube and Google Maps.”

Global Tablet OS Marketshare %			Q3 ’10			Q4 ’10
Apple iOS			95.5%			75.3%			84.1%
Android			2.3%			21.6%			13.1%
Others			2.3%			3.1%			2.8%
Total			100.0%			100.0%			100.0%

Clearly the growth and market share is explosive.  Indications are that this will continue to be the case, though not necessarily at this exponential rate.  It seems quite possible that Android-based tablets may overtake the iPad in sales at some point,  and perhaps soon.  This has been seen on the smartphone platform already and the exponential growth of Android on smartphones can readily be described in terms of months.

Let’s look at some of the elements coming into play:  Those numbers represent a sharp market share increase that is overwhelmingly represented by one device, the Samsung Galaxy Tab.  Android’s main advantage is its ability to come out in various different forms.  This means different pricing, sizes, features, and so on all aimed at different markets.  Compare that to the iPad which traditionally comes out with one version per year.  Already a number of models are set to be available shortly for purchase such as the much anticipated Motorola Xoom.

Another thing to consider is that the initial wave of Android tablets were released with the latest Android version at the time.  This and previous versions of Android were not made with features that were designed for the tablet platform.  Enter the Android Honeycomb version with more tablet-friendly features such as tabbed browsing, auto-fill, a new interface, and many other rumored highlights.  Tablets with Honeycomb OS versions will be even more attractive to buyers.

While Google, Android, and all the tablet manufacturers certainly will owe a tip of the hat to the iPad, it is hoped that when the day arrives where Android Tablets outsell the iPad that innovation will rule the day.  Chances are we will be looking at an entirely different landscape several months from now.