Shipments of Apple Inc's iPads will fall behind the growing variety of tablets running Google Inc's Android platform for the first time this year as smaller-sized devices catch on with more consumers, research firm International Data Corp. said on Tuesday.
iPad shipments are expected to account for 46 percent of the market in 2013, down from 51 percent last year, IDC said.
Devices running Android are expected to grow their market share to 49 percent this year from 42 percent last year.
IDC also raised its 2013 tablet shipment forecast to 190.9 million units, up from its previous forecast of 172.4 million units. Last year, global tablet shipments grew to 128.3 million units, up from 72 million in 2011, according to IDC.
Google's Nexus 7 tablet and Amazon.com Inc's Kindle, which uses its own customization of Android, made major inroads with consumers last year. In November, Apple launched its own foray into smaller-sized tablets with the iPad mini.
