Calling the fourth quarter of 2012 a “nightmare” for Apple would not be too much of a mistake. Because during this time the company has sown some seeds of frustration. The world’s most popular consumer electronics maker has had to endure the disappointment of investors who failed to sell the expected amount of iPhones and iPads and the consequent fall in share prices.

Even if it was saved! In the end, Apple lost the position of “most expensive company” to the oil company Exxon Mobil.

The expectations of market experts seem to be a little higher for this US company. Although the iPhone maker’s sales increased in the last quarter, there was no significant progress in profits. Although tablet device iPad shipments increased, it was not as strong as the market to compete with rival Android tablets.

In the last three months of 2012, more than 50 million tablet computers were sold worldwide, exceeding expectations.

Research institute According to IDC’s calculationsApple is still leading the tablet market with 43.6 percent market share in the last quarter of 2012. At the same time a year ago, the market share of the iPad was 51.6 percent.

Meanwhile, South Korean Samsung is moving forward at a breakneck pace. In the fourth quarter of last year, the Galaxy device maker’s tablet market share was 15.1 percent. However, in the same period of 2011, this amount was only 8.3 percent. Samsung has doubled its tablet market share with the Android operating system in less than a year.

In the last quarter of last year, Amazon came third with 11.5 percent market share, Asus came fourth with 5.6 percent market share and Barnes & Noble had 1.9 percent market share.