Apple’s latest figures are out and tablet sales were down 9.9% year on year for the quarter ending June 28.

Apple’s latest figures are out and tablet sales were down 9.9% year on year for the quarter ending June 28.

A lot of what we do at Fetch is connect commerce with consumers via mobile devices. The ability to track advertising from an impression through to a sale is what makes digital advertising so appealing to retailers. Where the challenges creep in when considering a retail mobile/tablet strategy is the fact that the device itself has a far greater relevance to sales performance.

If you are a retailer with a website you now have to consider whether the content is viewed on a desktop or a mobile/tablet device (and responsive or adaptive design is your friend here). But you don’t need to worry whether it’s an iPad or a Nexus 7.

“iPad sales may be dwindling but the overall tablet market is on the rise”

Matt Champion

If you are a retailer with an app strategy, it’s a bit different, because that app has to work on the specific operating system of the device that the consumer has in their hands.

Now, Apple’s iPad sales may be dwindling but the overall tablet market is on the rise. Tablet shipments in Q4 2013 were up 52% year on year far outstripping PC and notebook delivery. In that period, Apple accounted for 34% of all tablet shipments, followed by Samsung, Amazon, Asus, Lenovo and then a large but decreasing category of manufacturers, ‘others’ (30%), according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).

Also, in the US, for example, 78% of all mCommerce in the first 2014 happened on an iOS device, according to BI Intelligence.

Apple has an historical advantage, but it also have an advertising advantage. It’s easier to reach high value customers on iOS devices than on Android – iOS has a couple of tablets, driving users to an App Store, that it owns, that is laid out in such a way to favour retailers with the highest visibility (app rank). Also, 9 out of 10 Apple owners in the second quarter 2014 were running the latest iOS v.7. It’s still harder to reach specific ‘high end’ Android devices without including the thousands of lower types.

Samsung is doing a pretty good job of defragmenting the Android manufacturer global marketplace (growing 19% quarter on quarter in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to the IDC.

If you look at your colleagues or peers they will likely be similar people to you, yet in 2014 it’s getting harder to say whether those persons would have an Apple or a Samsung tablet. As a retailer with an app strategy, you’re going to need to engage with both.

Matt Champion is client services director at Fetch