[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by kennyc

And don't miss this at the end either:

EDITOR'S NOTE: While the numbers in this story are all accurate (with respect to the study), the original version didn't point out the distinction between tablets sold and tablets shipped. This oversight has been addressed.

So here is the rewrite:

Some 4.6 million Android-based tablets shipped in this year's second quarter as compared with just around 100,000 in the year-ago quarter, according to Strategy Analytics. That's not exactly shocking, considering that there was scarcely an Android tablet on the market a year ago, while in late 2010 and 2011 several have been released by Motorola, Samsung, Asus, Acer, Toshiba, and others.

Importantly, the Strategy Analytics report deals with tablets "shipped," not "sold." How many of these tablets are actually in the hands of customers is an open question. (Apple, for one, regularly reports on the number of iPads sold; the company recently said it had sold 9.25 million iPads in the last fiscal quarter, for a total of about 29 million to date.)

Apple probably isn't too concerned with the loss of tablet OS market share to Google, Microsoft (4.6 percent year-over-year gain), Research in Motion (3.3 percent year-over-year gain), and others.

After all the tablet OS market as a whole grew a whopping 331 percent in the last year and Apple grew right along with it in terms of unit shipments. Tablet makers shipped 3.5 million in the second quarter of 2010, with Apple easily leading the charge with 3.2 million iPads shipped.