According to the Thursday-released statistics from US research firm ABI Research, the worldwide tablet market share of the Apple iPad touched a record low during the months from between July and September.

Going by the ABI research figures, despite the fact that the Apple iPad is still a dominant player in the global tablet arena, the July-September quarter witnessed the share of the device plunging to its lowest-ever level of 55 percent; marking a 14 percent drop over the second-quarter figures.

The data released by ABI Research also revealed that the global tablet market share of tablets powered by Google's Android operating system stood at 44 percent during the July-September quarter.

Commenting on the fall in iPad's global tablet market share during the mentioned quarter, Forbes said that the plunge was essentially an upshot of the fact that Apple was somewhat late in responding to the changing market demands for the smaller, 7-inch tablets --- an arena which is dominated by Google's Nexus 7 tablet and Amazon's Kindle Fire.

With Forbes noting that the recent release of the 7.9-inch iPad Mini cannibalized sales of the earlier iPad models, an ABI Research analyst said that the iPad Mini "has failed to deliver a knock-out punch through innovation, pricing, and availability during the most critical selling period of the year."