With no updated iPads on sale, 7 inch android tablet sales slip 10% in Q2-Priceangels.com

Nearly 10% fewer 7 inch android tablet of all brands shipped in the second quarter compared to the first, with Apple's iPad line showing the biggest decline -- a 25% slide, IDC said today.But by the fourth quarter, new iPad and iPad Mini tablets are expected from Apple, as well as new products from Amazon and others. Google announced its second-generation Nexus 7 tablet running Android 4.3 nearly two weeks ago, and sales kicked off last Tuesday.

Apple essentially created the modern tablet category with the first iPad in April 2010 and held 60.3 % market share in the second quarter 2012. It now has almost half as much market share -- 32.5%, IDC said. All Android tablets now have 62.5% market share, while Windows 7 and Windows 8 tablets have 4%.

Meanwhile, Samsung tablets running Android saw a 277% year-over-year growth in the second quarter, even though Samsung also took a hit between the first and second quarters. Still in second place behind Apple, Samsung shipped 8.1 million tablets in the quarter, down from 8.6 million in the first quarter. By comparison, it shipped 2.1 million tablets in second quarter of 2012.

IDC said 45.1 million tablets of all brands shipped in the second quarter, with just over half -- 22.7 million -- coming from Apple and Samsung.Mainelli said Samsung is not likely to outsell Apple anytime in the near future, although Samsung will become "increasingly competitive." One thing that helps Samsung tablets in the market is how Samsung smartphones and even Samsung TV's will often be bundled for sale with Samsung Galaxy tablets to make for better sales, Mainelli said.fd5F4ghD

The biggest 8 inch android tablet maker after Samsung was Asus, with 2 million tablets shipped in the second quarter, or 4.5% of the market.Windows tablets accounted for 1.8 million tablets in the quarter, while Windows RT tablets running on ARM chips accounted for 200,000 shipped, or 0.5% of the market.IT managers and enterprises are "interested in the manageability of a Windows tablet," Mainelli said, even if sales haven't been strong. "The first quarter saw companies kicking the tires of Windows 8, while a few more purchased tablets in the second quarter," he said.

When you think of tablets you probably don't think of the workplace, although some are trying to embrace the technology. Even the ads for Microsoft's Surface tablet, while showing workers using them, are filled with dancing and acrobatics that don't really bring the workplace to mind.

The data shows that not all tablet makers suffered a slowdown. Chinese PC and tablet maker Lenovo jumped back into the top five, generating 1.5 million shipments, a three-fold increase on the second quarter of 2012. Acer came close to matching Lenovo's shipments, with 1.4 million tablets out during the quarter, more than doubling its share on the same quarter a year earlier.