Apple to lose tablet market share to Android in 2012 - IDC

A customer looks over the iPad mini after the device went on sale at Apple's retail store in Palo Alto, California November 2, 2012.

REUTERS - Apple Inc's(AAPL.O) iPad and iPad mini tablets would lose some market share to devices running on Google Inc's(GOOG.O) Android platform for the full year, research firm International Data Corp (IDC) said.

Apple's worldwide tablet market share would slip to 53.8 percent in 2012 from 56.3 percent in 2011, while Android products would increase their share to 42.7 percent from 39.8 percent, IDC said.

It raised its 2012 outlook for the worldwide tablet market to 122.3 million units, up from its previous forecast of 117.1 million units, on increased shipments of Android tablets as well as high demand for iPad mini.

IDC also raised its 2013 shipment forecast to 172.4 million units from 165.9 million units.

"Tablets continue to captivate consumers, and as the market shifts toward smaller, more mobile screen sizes and lower prices points, we expect demand to accelerate in the fourth quarter and beyond," research director of tablets Tom Mainelli said.

Tablets running on Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) Windows operating systems, including Windows 8 and Windows RT, would grab market share from both Apple's iOS and Android, growing to 2.9 percent in 2012 and 10.2 percent in 2016, IDC said. (Reporting by Chandni Doulatramani in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das)