Apple loses ground in tablet market; Samsung and Amazon gain

Rumors and leaks may have hurt Apple in the tablet market during this year’s third quarter, resulting in a significant loss of market share, a report Monday says.

The Cupertino company went from controlling 65.5% of the market during the 2012 second quarter to 50.4% in the third quarter, according to IDC, a tech analytics firm.

IDC said it believes the rumors surrounding the iPad mini led a “sizable percentage of consumers� who were interested in getting an iPad to wait and see what Apple would offer and to sit out making a purchase during the third quarter.

But with a line of new iPad mini tablets and the new fourth-generation iPad, Apple may regain the lost market share in the fourth quarter, IDC said.

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“Now that the new mini, and a fourth-generation full-sized iPad, are both shipping, we expect Apple to have a very good quarter,� the report says.

But with the iPad mini’s high-end $329 price, IDC says, Apple’s competitors have “plenty of room� to build on the gains they made in the third quarter.

Amazon, for instance, nearly doubled its market share in just one quarter, and it now controls 9% of the tablet market thanks to the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD, which debuted in September.

But second place belongs to Apple’s bitter rival, Samsung of South Korea. It shipped more than 5 million tablets during the third quarter and saw its market share increase from just under 10% to 18.4%.

“The company offers a wide range of tablet offerings across multiple screen sizes and colors, and that clearly resonated with more buyers� in the third quarter, said IDC’s Mobile Device Trackers Program Manager Ryan Reith in the report.

Closing out the top four was Asus, which had an 8.6% market share. It builds Google’s Nexus 7 tablet, which launched this summer.

“Competitors are turning up the pressure on market leader Apple,� Reith said in the report.

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