(By Balachander) Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad continued its dominance in the global market for media tablets in the first three months of 2012 while Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) Kindle Fire "fizzled", according to a survey.
The survey by ABI Research showed the tablet sales surged 185 percent to 18.2 million in the first quarter of this year compared with the year-ago period, but dropped 33 percent sequentially from the holiday quarter of 2011.
Driven by the introduction of a third-generation lineup and price cut on iPad 2 models, Apple accounted roughly 65 percent of the market with 11.8 million iPad shipments, the report showed.
Samsung overtook Amazon to take the second spot with 1.1 million shipments, or six percent of the market, according to ABI.
ABI analyst Jeff Orr said Apple and Samsung "have demonstrated staying power while other tablet vendors ebb and flow like the tide."
Among the other tablet makers, the survey showed that only two top original equipment manufacturers saw gain in shipments in the first quarter, with Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) surging 233 percent and Lenovo jumping 107 percent.
Other vendors including Dell, Hewlett-Packard and LG are currently retooling tablet portfolios for mid-year launches of Android 4.0 along with Windows 8 platform debuting later in 2012.
Apple has shipped the most number of 3G-enabled tablets, outpacing South Korean giant Samsung by a factor of eight.
Orr said the majority of iPad buyers continue to be satisfied with Wi-Fi wireless coverage.