4.4m tablets sold in last quarter

Up 26%, Strategy Analytics estimates, with Apple claiming 95% of market

Research firm Strategy Analytics has claimed that tablet sales have grown 26 per cent over the last quarter. It estimated that 4.4 million tablet devices were sold in the quarter ending 31 September, with Apple's iPad claiming 95 per cent of those sales.

The company calculated that Android tablets constituted 2 per cent of the market. Currently, Android tablets primarily constitute low-cost devices from the Far East, hampered by resistive rather than capacitive touch screens, but a wave of higher-quality tablets from established brands is currently filtering to retail.

The tablet wars are up and running," said Strategy Analytics director Neil Mawston. "Android, Microsoft, MeeGo, webOS, Blackberry and other platforms are trailing in Apple's wake and they already have much ground to make up."

The research firm also claimed that mobile phone operators could grow the tablet market by 70 per cent were they to subsidise prices with appealing data plans.