The Android operating system is beginning to make inroads into Apple’s dominance in the booming tablet space, grabbing 22 percent global share in the fourth quarter last year according to Strategy Analytics. As global tablet shipments reached almost 10 million units in the period (9.7 million, a 120 percent increase from the previous quarter), Apple recorded an impressive 75 percent global OS market share but slipped from a peak of 95 percent in the third quarter due to rising competition from Android. “Android tablet volumes experienced 2000 percent sequential growth and its global marketshare soared to a record 22 percent in Q4 2010,” noted Neil Mawston, Director at Strategy Analytics. “The Samsung Galaxy Tab [pictured] 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.”

Strategy Analytics expects Android to increase its share of the global tablet market during the first half of 2011, ramping up the pressure on Apple (which is itself expected to unveil a ‘second-generation’ iPad in the period). Motorola’s Xoom is a new high-profile Android tablet also set to hit retail stores, while RIM’s PlayBook launch should help boost results in the ‘Others’ category. Meanwhile Strategy Analytics points out that the US remains the world’s largest tablet market, claiming that the country is a market that “no major vendor can afford to ignore.”