Apple Is Beaten By Amazon In Consumer Satisfaction Survey, Plus Global Tablet Market Share Wanes

Apple is easily one of the top contenders in the tablet market with its iPad Air and iPad Mini devices. Plus, the company's products are known for both satisfied customers and also for the staggering volume of device shipment. Very recently, the Cupertino-based company released the refreshed version of the iPad models i.e. iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3. In spite of this, recent news points to a declining trend in Apple's lead specific to tablet market.

Based on the reports from IDC and J.D Power, the low-cost, budget-friendly tablet makers are gaining traction and thereby, declining Apple's high-end tablet market share. But then, the same report also points out that, consumers are looking for more innovation from Apple especially in the tablets department. Apparently, Apple is a tad behind Amazon in J.D. Power's semi-annual customer satisfaction survey. Adding to the existing woes, Apple's dominance in global tablet-shipping continues to wither, says MacRumors.

It is worth mentioning that the recently released iPad Mini 3 does not come with any significant change, besides adding a Touch ID Fingerprint scanner. Very recently, Ray Soneira of Display Mate Technologies said the following on the Mini 3, "For a company like Apple that prides itself on producing great products, the iPad mini 3 is embarrassingly mediocre and way overpriced."

As noted in IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker, Apple still holds the top-rank among other OEMs even with a 12.8 percent fall in quarterly tablet shipment year-over-year stats. The company, seemingly, shipped a total of 12.3 million iPad units in the third quarter of 2014, whereas the South Korean conglomerate Samsung shipped 9.9 million units and the Taiwanese multinational Asus comes third with 3.5 million shipped units.

Furthermore, Apple's market share is expected to gain in Q4 2014 with the new Air 2 and Mini 3 line-up. Despite this, the surge will not be phenomenal owing to the fact that many consumers will hold on to their existing iPads, since the enhancements in the newly introduced tablets are not substantial, says the same site. The silver lining, however, is that the IDC report is very optimistic about the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus with their continual surge in sales.

Having said that, should Apple be worried? Yes, because the company lost its numero uno ranking in the latest J.D. Power tablet satisfaction study. Apparently, Apple scored 824 and placed itself behind Amazon's Fire line of tablets. Notably, the third spot is scored by Samsung.

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