Research consultancy Frank N. Magid Associates’s recently survey of 4,734 cell phone and smartphone owners revealed that 50% of people currently own an iPad, down significantly from 72% at last count. Apple shipped a robust 17.0 million iPads worldwide and maintained its strong market leadership with 68 percent share during the second quarter of 2012

The report says Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet made the biggest dent in Apple’s tablet share, skyrocketing to 22% since launching last year. “That’s what made up the difference,” Tom Godfrey, executive director of mobile strategy at Magid, told The Los Angeles Times.

“We expect to see the iPad as the leader, but with the Surface, Kindle Fire, and Nexus as three solid competitors with significant market share,” said Godfrey. “What is interesting now is that many people, including a lot of publishers, think the tablet market is just the iPad,”he observed.