In February of 2013, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the tablet sector will be huge and it will become the "mother of all markets," as reported by Apple Insider.

Mr Cook pointed out that there was high demand for the iPad mini in emerging markets like Brazil and China. This opened a huge revenue opportunity for Apple.

"You would find that over 50 percent of the people in countries like China and Brazil that were buying an iPad don't own an Apple product. This is a huge thing for us to go out and show people what Apple is and introduce them to the company," Mr Cook explained.

Mr Cook assured investors that iPad Mini will not cannibalize the Apple iPad and other top of the line products from the company. However, a Sept 27, 2013 report from ABI Research stated that it is possible for the market share for Apple iPad to fall behind Android-powered tablets in the coming days due to vendors and demand shift favouring the Apple iPad mini.

The ABI Research based their report on three identifiable factors which hinted that the Apple iPad "has passed the baton to the Android ecosystem." The three factors are as follows:

  • During the second quarter of 2013, the number of Android-powered tablets surpassed iOS-based slates for the first time,
  • Tablet-related hardware revenues reached parity, and perhaps most important,
  • The average selling price (ASP) of iPad is rapidly approaching the market average.

The report acknowledged that Apple remains leading in the tablet race, but competitors were already matching Apple's top of the line products, especially in the case of Android-powered tablets.

"Twelve months is a long time for the peak lifecycle of a contemporary tablet. To remain a leader, Apple must continue to innovate and address real-world market needs," said ABI's senior practice director Jeff Orr.

Mr Orr pointed out that shipment for Apple iPad plummeted to 17 percent, while the rest of the market is "growing 23% year-over-year for the same quarterly period."

"Smaller 7-inch class tablets are finally the majority of shipments. The 7.9-inch iPad mini represented about 60% of total iPad shipments and 49% of iPad-related device revenues in the quarter," Mr Orr stated.

There was $12.7 billion revenues in the tablet shipments in the second quarter of 2013. For the first time, Apple iPad represented only 50 percent of the worldwide end-user revenues. The market was divided with the competitors taking $6.3 billion in the quarter.