Another study pins Apple on top of the worldwide tablet market share leader board, but Google's Android has gained considerable ground.

Technology market intelligence firm ABI Research reports that Android-based tablets have grown to nab 20 percent of the market away from the iPad in the last year.

ABI points out that not a "single vendor using Android (or any other OS) has been able to mount a significant challenge against" the iPad. This fits in accordingly with a study from iSuppli published last week, which argued that tablet manufacturers have not been able to compete with the iPad's design.

But more so than the external design, ABI attributes the lack of competition up until now to "fragmentation within operating system software."

ABI Research's mobile devices group director Jeff Orr the potential of open software platform development in a statement:

De-featured, low-cost media tablets are being introduced by more than fifty vendors in 2011. This will certainly help bolster year-over-year growth for the category, but it also creates a negative perception in the minds of the mass consumer audience about the readiness of media tablets to be fully functional within the next several years. Good user experiences and product response are needed to propel this market beyond the ‘early adopter’ stage.

Earlier this week, DigiTimes reported that non-Apple tablet sales are expected to surge by 134 percent in 2012 thanks to new and advanced chips from a handful of ARM suppliers such as NVIDIA, Texas Instruments and Qualcomm. Android and Apple shipments are expected to level out more evenly as Android-based tablet PCs are expected to increase to 44-45 million units and iPad shipments are predicted to hover around 54-55 million units in 2012.

[via Boy Genius Report]

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