Canalys provided Mobile Marketing with thisApple is not any longer the biggest tablet platform, in line with Q1 estimates from research firm Canalys.

The company dropped below 50 per cent share in Q4 2012 and was overtaken by Android for the primary time in Q1 2013, with Google’s OS holding 48 per cent and Apple now on 46 per cent. Windows gained 5 per cent while BlackBerry holds just 1 per cent share.

Apple continues to be the most important tablet manufacturer, however, with Android leader Samsung on 21 per cent, followed by Google and Amazon on 5 per cent. ‘Others’ make up the remainder 24 per cent.

“The rise in Android tablet shipments have been driven by aggressive pricing from Google, Amazon and Samsung,” said Pete Cunningham, Canalys principal analyst. “We think this trend to continue as more top tier vendors including Acer, HP and Lenovo have began to bring low-cost 7 inch tablets to market. Despite Apple losing ground to those vendors the strength of its brand and ecosystem ensures that it’s still ready to charge a premium and own the better price points, other vendors are having to simply accept slim margins to compete.”

Apple growth slowing

Smartphone shipments came in at just over 216.3m,  growing 47.9 per cent in this quarter. Android accounted for 75.6 per cent of all smartphone shipments during Q1, a  9 per cent increase at the previous quarter. Samsung is the lead manufacturer with 32 per cent market share.

In contrast, Apple saw modest annual growth of 6.7 per cent in smartphone shipments – the bottom level for the reason that launch of the unique iPhone  in 2007. “Despite its slowing growth, Apple still shipped over 37m iPhones,’ Cunningham said.

But, he cautioned: “The iPhone user interface is now six years old and badly short of a refresh. It cannot afford to disregard the craze for larger displays in premium smart phones. We think a rise at the iPhone 5’s 4″ display but don’t seem to be anticipating a “Phablet”-style iPhone.” Huawei, LG and ZTE completed the head five smart phone vendors, all with lower than 5 per cent market share each.

While tablet sales grew by 106 per cent year-on-year, notebook PC shipments fell by 13.1 per cent. The most important decline was in Western Europe, where shipments fell by 25.2 per cent throughout the year.