While Android?s share of the tablet market jumped to a record 39.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, it is not expected to catch up to the iPad any time soon.

New research from Strategy Analytics shows that global tablet shipments reached 26.8 million units in the fourth quarter, up 150 percent from 10.7 million units in the fourth quarter of 2010. Apple maintained its strong leadership in the market with a 57.6 percent share, shipping 15.4 million iPads worldwide.

?Apple continues to control the tablet market,? said Peter King, London-based director at Strategy Analytics.

?Android did make significant gains over a 12-month period,? he said. ?That was due to the fact that so many new vendors came to the market with a new tablet based on Android.

?In the fourth quarter, the big news in the U.S. market was the Amazon Kindle Fire and, to a lesser extent, the Nook Tablet. Despite the hype surrounding those products and numerous press releases suggesting they were selling by the millions, it would appear that Apple did not feel any pain from them.?

Android fragmentation an issue
The numbers suggest that Apple is not feeling much heat from entry-level Android tablets from Amazon and Barnes & Noble that were released in the fourth quarter and received a lot of hype.

Android?s share of the tablet market was just 29 percent a year ago. The jump to 39 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 reflects the entry of new tablets on Android from a variety of manufacturers, including Amazon, Samsung and Asus. Global Android shipments tripled annually to 10.5 million units.

Microsoft captured a niche 1.5 percent global tablet share in the fourth quarter.

?In the fourth quarter, Amazon did have an impact and we will all have to watch to see if that can be sustained,? Mr. King said.

?Google has a problem in that Android is so fragmented,? he said. ?People are using tablets based on Android, putting own services on top and not using Google?s services ? it is hard to see how Google is benefitting from this.?

?It will be the end of next year at the earliest that Android can catch up to iPad and that?s if iPad stands still, which it will not do.?

For the year, global tablet shipments reached 66.9 million units in 2011, up 260 percent from 18.6 million units in 2010 and driven by strong demand among consumers and businesses. Consumers are increasingly buying tablets in preference to netbooks and even entry-level notebooks or desktops, according to Strategy Analytics.

?We are coming to a stage where we have a polarized market,? Mr. King said. ?There is a $200 market and a $500 market with nothing in between.

?I would think that Apple is very happy with their position in the market now,? he said. ?At this time, no real threat has emerged.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York