• Tech Crunch, Tuesday, March 6, 2012 12:15 PM

Despite the best efforts of Google and its Android partners, research shows that Apple controls 73% of the tablet market. What’s more, as Forrester finds, no Android tablet maker can claim more than a 5% share against Apple. As TechCrunch notes, however, Forrester carried out its related research last September, i.e., before Amazon started selling its Kindle Fire tablet, and before Barnes & Noble released its own tablet.

“These devices have proven to be forces in the market, and are already having an impact on sales of another device in the food chain, e-readers,” TechCrunch writes. Both tablets sold by Amazon and Barnes & Noble run on high-customized versions of Android mobile software -- so customized, in fact, that neither are on Android’s upgrade or service track, according to TechCrunch.

In Forrester’s most recent analysis, Samsung had a 5% share of the market, followed by Motorola with a 4% share. Now discontinued, HP’s TouchPad had a 6% share, which TechCrunch attributed to “a series of crazy fire sales.” Meanwhile, during its last quarterly results at the end of January, Amazon said sales of its Kindle products -- including e-readers -- had grown 177% year-over-year, and the Kindle Fire was the bestselling among them.

Read the whole story at Tech Crunch »