Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) will lose market share in 2012 - IDC

Research firm International Data Corp has made a dire forecast that would please Google Inc(NASDAQ:GOOG) and disappoint Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL).

According to IDC, Apple devices such as the iPad and the iPad Mini will lose market share in the year (2012) while Android devices will be gaining market share.

Apple's worldwide tablet market share would slip to 53.8 percent in 2012 from 56.3 percent in 2011, while Android products would increase their share to 42.7 percent from 39.8 percent, IDC said.

It’s no secret that Google's Android platform is the best-selling operating platform globally and newer handsets and tablet PCs coming into the market and targeting the lower and middle segment prefer to use Android.

Apple ecosystem is, of course, closed and as such used only by Apple's handsets.

IDC also raised its outlook for tablets in 2012 to 122.3 million units, up from its previous forecast of 117.1 million units, based on increased shipments of Android tablets as well as high demand for the iPad Mini.

For 2013, the firm raised its shipment forecast to 172.4 million units from 165.9 million units.

"Tablets continue to captivate consumers, and as the market shifts toward smaller, more mobile screen sizes and lower prices points, we expect demand to accelerate in the fourth quarter and beyond," IDC's research director of tablets Tom Mainelli said.

The IDC report said that tablets running on Microsoft Corp's Windows operating systems, would grab market share from both Apple's iOS and Android, growing to 2.9 percent in 2012 and 10.2 percent in 2016.