Apple’s share of the global tablet computer market fell in the final quarter of 2011 despite shipping nearly 40 percent more iPads and iPad 2s than in the previous quarter, according to the latest figures from analyst company IHS iSuppli.

Apple’s share of the tablet market fell to 57 percent in Q4 2011 from the 64 percent in the previous quarter. It shipped a total of 15.4 million iPad and iPad2 tablet devices, up 39 percent on the 11.1 million sold in the previous quarter.

The arrival of Amazon’s Kindle Fire played a part in the shift in Apple’s tablet share as the new device hit 3.9 million shipments during the quarter. The Amazon tablet secured a 14.3 percent share of the global market, making it the second-largest tablet in terms of shipments for the quarter, ahead of Samsung's Galaxy Tab. The Kindle Fire also accounted for more than half of tablet sales in the US during the period.

For 2011 as a whole, Apple shipped 40.5 million iPads, an increase of 168 percent on 2010’s 15.1 million. Apple secured a 62 percent share of the tablet market for the year, down from 87 percent in 2010. Samsung held second spot for the year with its Galaxy Tab hitting 6.1 million shipments, 9.4 percent of the market. Amazon secured 6 percent of the market.

IHS senior manager for tablet and monitor research, Rhoda Alexander, said that the fall in Apple’s market share was in line with the IHS estimates as previously loyal Apple customers spent their money on “shiny new alternatives.”

However Alexander said the main alternative was actually the iPhone 4S as it had diverted people’s disposable income away from the iPad and “doing more to limit iPad shipment growth than competition from the Kindle Fire and other media tablets.”

With the arrival of the lower-priced Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble's Nook, other makers of Android-based tablets were forced to cut prices during the period. IHS iSuppli suggests that many vendors are now looking at the potential of tablets powered by Microsoft’s Windows 8 platform and predicts a surge of Windows 8 and ARM-based tablets later this year and early in 2013.

However, Apple is likely to reclaim its market share with the release of the next-generation iPad, widely expected to be unveiled in the next month.