The tablet market from 2011 is just now starting to come to light with some solid numbers.  And from the looks of things, tablets are even more popular than everyone expected.  According to Strategy Analytics, total global shipments of tablets hit 66.9 million units in 2011.  This represents a massive 260 percent increase from the 18.6 million tablets that were shipped in 2010 (most of which were the iPad).  Just in Q4 2011 alone, Apple shipped 15.4 million iPads worldwide and continues to dominate the tablet market with a 58 percent share.  This compared to the 10.5 million Android tablets shipped in 2011.  This is still represents an impressive 29 percent increase in Android tablet demand from 2010.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire

And finally, I couldn’t help but to put the Kindle Fire’s popularity into perspective here.  A total of 10.5 million Android tablets shipped in 2011.  However, it is now estimated that nearly 6 million Kindle Fire tablets were shipped in Q4 2011.  If this is the case – and we’ll know more today after Amazon’s Q4 earnings call – then the Kindle Fire made up over half of the total Android tablets shipped in 2011.  And they achieved this in just one quarter.  Impressive…  for an Android tablet.

via Strategy Analytics