IDC: iPad's market share now 50.4%, Samsung is second with 18.4%

Little by little, Apple's tablet market share continues to fall, according to research company IDC. The iPad now controls about 50.4% of the market, which, however, is still an enormous figure. Quite an achievement, especially for an oversized iPod touch, as some like to say. These numbers represent tablet sales for the third quarter of 2012.

Far behind Apple in IDC's research is Samsung - a distant second with 18.4% of the market. There isn't that much excitement surrounding Samsung's latest tablets, but we guess that the brand recognition is playing its part here. Third is Amazon with 9%. According to the source, the new Kindle Fire HD models have greatly helped Amazon boost its tablet sales in the last quarter. Rounding up the top 5, we have Asus at fourth place with 8.6% and Lenovo at fifth with 1.4%.

It would be very interesting to observe how the market for tablets is going to change now that we have the iPad mini and the Samsung Nexus 10 coming soon. Do you have any predictions?