RIM, Samsung thrash Apple in UK fondleslab sales growth

iPad maker falls behind UK average

Some things in life are certain: death, taxes, Boris Johnson's blond mop top, and the Apple iPad's continued dominance in the tablet sector.

But wait, something's changed: not only has BoJo had a neat trim for the Olympics, sales of Cupertino's fondleslab grew less than the UK market average during Q2. Fanbois can rest easy: idiot-tax operation Apple still holds the gold medal.

Around 875,000 tabs built by all manufacturers shipped across Blighty in the past three months, up 39 per cent year-on-year. Slightly more than 70 per cent of these slates were iPads, sales of which grew 36 per cent compared to the same period in 2011.

Then comes the huge chasm: beleaguered Canadian firm RIM grew its tablet sales 63 per cent in the second quarter to take the silver medal and about a four per cent share of UK shipments.

This follows a permanent halving of its BlackBerry PlayBook price tag, which has enticed some UK buyers to snap them up. Samsung more than doubled shipments in Q2, and holds a market share of also about four per cent.

"Apple is still dominating with a very similar market share to a year ago," said Tim Coulling, analyst at Canalys. "We haven't yet seen anyone make a huge impact".

Enter the Google Nexus 7, which is tapping into the seven-inch screen market, a sweet spot for bargain-basement devices, and is built around access to the Play store.

"It will be interesting to see how that affects other vendors' sales. We think it will become the stand-out Android device. It will out-ship Samsung," he said.

The big question is whether or not it can unseat Apple from the fondleslab throne. ®