Apple has now sold 40m iPads – we estimate 4 to 5m in the UK – and goes into the Christmas season with no credible competitors beyond Amazon’s Kindle Fire, which is so far only available in the USA. Android phones are selling in huge numbers at half the price or less of the iPhone, but would-be iPad competitors are the same price or higher. With the continued absence of a meaningful content ecosystem for Android tablets it is hard to see consumers buying them in substantial numbers. Competing Android tablets have sold around a tenth as many units as the iPad, but others have sold far less: RIM’s PlayBook has been a major disappointment, forcing RIM to write off $485m of inventory.