Apple Retains Majority of Tablet Shipments in 4Q11 as Kindle Fire Drives Android Momentum

MacRumors · Mar 13, 2012

Research firm IDC today released its data on tablet shipments for the fourth quarter of 2011, pegging Apple at 54.7% of the market. Apple's share is down from 61.5% in the previous quarter, with the decline due in large part to a relatively strong debut for Amazon's $199 Kindle Fire tablet, which garnered 16.8% of the market.

"Amazon's widely-reported entry into the media tablet market with a $199, 7-inch product seemed to raise consumers' awareness of the category worldwide despite the fact that the Fire shipped almost exclusively in the U.S. in the fourth quarter," said Tom Mainelli, research director, Mobile Connected Devices. "As a result, products across the pricing spectrum sold well, including everything from Apple's premium-priced iPads (which start at $499) to Pandigital's line of Android-based, entry-level tablets (which start at $120). The success of market leader Apple was particularly noteworthy, as the company's shipment total for the quarter represents an increase of 110.5% from 4Q10."

On the strength of the Kindle Fire, Android has seen its share of the tablet market rise from 32.3% to 44.6%, giving iOS and Android 99.3% of the market. Research in Motion's BlackBerry operating system holds the remaining 0.7% of the market, while HP's webOS has disappeared from the market following the company's discontinuation of its TouchPad.

IDC predicts that Android as a whole will overtake iOS in market share by 2015, but Apple's single-vendor strategy will see the company maintain its dominance in revenue through the end of the 2016 forecast period and beyond.

IDC's data measures shipments into the sales channel and not sales to end users, meaning that its data includes units sitting on store shelves that are not being purchased by customers. Given that Apple has repeatedly noted that it is selling every iPad it can make and other vendors have had difficulty moving their products off of store shelves, Apple has generally been regarded as having a higher end-user market share than suggested by IDC's numbers. But with the apparent success of the Kindle Fire, that disparity in shipments versus sales may be shrinking somewhat.

Article Link: Apple Retains Majority of Tablet Shipments in 4Q11 as Kindle Fire Drives Android Momentum

Munnichs · Mar 13, 2012

I think now the market is flooded with cheap android tablets, apple may be really losing their 50%+ share (not just with shipments but also with real sells). But with the high-end tablets, no one even comes close to apple :apple:

macmastersam · Mar 13, 2012

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B176 Safari/7534.48.3)

Don't see how iOS could have a smaller market share in the tablet market since its shares have rose rapidly over the past few months...

That said, I really want iOS to have a bigger market share In tablets, as well as phones and music, because it makes up Most of apples share.

Munnichs · Mar 13, 2012

Like 20 manufacturers make millions android tablets but no one buys them, but because shipments are counted towards marketshare, apple loses 'shipments marketshare.'

thekeyring · Mar 13, 2012

As far as tablets go, iPad is clearly a winner. Having just watched a Kindle Fire ad, it looks more like an advance Kindle, than an attempt at a tablet.

normdwyer · Mar 13, 2012

Really?

I am admittedly an Apple fan boy, but i'm so tired of these unsubstantiated claims that the Kindle Fire is selling significantly at all. It is a nice device, but since Amazon refuses to break out sales figures by product, simply lumping all kindle products in one category, it is sloppy to make any assumptions about individual product sales. If anything the iPad with Apple's massive marketing and PR push is helping drive sales of the Kindle Fire, rather than the other way around.
Don't forget that the Kindle Fire is essentially the same hardware as the failed RIM Playbook, granted with much better software and commerce ecosystem. But even so, it just boggles the mind that where all others have failed miserably Amazon is succeeding.
I argue, recklessly and in a factual vacuum, that Amazon is selling a majority of sub $100 Kindles and a few Kindle Fires. I'll stick by this until Amazon chooses to share a sales (to consumers not channel sales) breakdown by individual product. The only reason i can see for them to bury the Kindle Fire's sales in aggregate with all Kindle sales, is because they are embarrassingly dismal at this time.

anti-microsoft · Mar 13, 2012

Down-vote me if you like but I have a question.

Do shipments mean sold to the consumer or do they mean sold to the retailer?

If it's the latter, what's the point in researching and publishing these numbers?

Pardon my ignorance.

lowbatteries · Mar 13, 2012

Do they count both the shipments of devices to the retailer, and the shipment back to the manufacturer after they aren't able to sell them? That's double counting!

Mad Mac Maniac · Mar 13, 2012

normdwyer said:
I am admittedly an Apple fan boy, but i'm so tired of these unsubstantiated claims that the Kindle Fire is selling significantly at all. It is a nice device, but since Amazon refuses to break out sales figures by product, simply lumping all kindle products in one category, it is sloppy to make any assumptions about individual product sales. If anything the iPad with Apple's massive marketing and PR push is helping drive sales of the Kindle Fire, rather than the other way around.
Don't forget that the Kindle Fire is essentially the same hardware as the failed RIM Playbook, granted with much better software and commerce ecosystem. But even so, it just boggles the mind that where all others have failed miserably Amazon is succeeding.
I argue, recklessly and in a factual vacuum, that Amazon is selling a majority of sub $100 Kindles and a few Kindle Fires. I'll stick by this until Amazon chooses to share a sales (to consumers not channel sales) breakdown by individual product. The only reason i can see for them to bury the Kindle Fire's sales in aggregate with all Kindle sales, is because they are embarrassingly dismal at this time.

You make a good point, but I think Fire sales are still pretty high. And you can't compare the fire to the playbook. Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the playbook start at $500 when it first came out? Do you think Amazon woud be able to sell Fire's for $500? No. Do you think RIM would be able to sell playbooks at $200? Yes. The price is what is so attractive to the average consumer. That's why I believe fire's are selling in high quantities.

If Apple is able to create that 7.87" iPad at $249 as rumored... it's lights out.

JAT · Mar 13, 2012

anti-microsoft said:
Down-vote me if you like but I have a question.

Do shipments mean sold to the consumer or do they mean sold to the retailer?

If it's the latter, what's the point in researching and publishing these numbers?

Pardon my ignorance.

The latter. And marketing is why.

kdarling · Mar 13, 2012

normdwyer said:
I am admittedly an Apple fan boy, but i'm so tired of these unsubstantiated claims that the Kindle Fire is selling significantly at all.

Yep, it all depends on how much you believe the report. According to IDC, their...

Data sources used in the process of determining IDC's tracker numbers include, but are not limited to:

In-country local vendor interviews

Distribution data feeds

Worldwide and regional vendor guidance

ODM data

In-country local channel partner discussions

Import records

Feedback from component suppliers

Vendor briefings and public financial reports

So they seem to be interviewing the supply chain itself, which is far better than some report vendors that just use website hits. They claim they've been in this business for 47 years, which is also a lot longer than most report sources. But who knows.

anti-microsoft said:
Do shipments mean sold to the consumer or do they mean sold to the retailer?

They mean sold to the retailer, which is what everyone (Apple included) reports (unless sold directly via their own stores/websites, of course). Most companies, Apple again included, account for returns separately.

Most of us intuit that Apple has far fewer returns of new items that a store might stock up on. At the same time, stores do not continue to stock items that have been out for a while if they're not selling. Meaning, the first month or two of any tablet sales are suspect, but after that they're believable.

nsayer · Mar 13, 2012

Munnichs said:
I think now the market is flooded with cheap android tablets, apple may be really losing their 50%+ share (not just with shipments but also with real sells). But with the high-end tablets, no one even comes close to apple

It's the same in PC space. Apple doesn't compete on the low end, because it doesn't compromise on its standards. It's easy to find "similar" products that do a lousy job because they cut lots of corners, but it's clear that Apple has done a good job convincing people that they shouldn't settle for less.

----------

Mad Mac Maniac said:
If Apple is able to create that 7.87" iPad at $249 as rumored... it's lights out.

They already do, only it's slightly larger than half that size and starts at $199.

M-O · Mar 13, 2012

MacRumors said:
IDC predicts that Android as a whole will overtake iOS in market share by 2015

by then Apple will already have exited the tablet market and moved on to the future.

Laird Knox · Mar 13, 2012

These aren't really surprising numbers. Android sales are ramping up from virtually zero. It will be another year or two before the market begins to mature.

It will be interesting to see how things develop over the next couple of years.

Saladinos · Mar 13, 2012

Maybe inside the US. Outside the US, the iPad overwhelmingly dominates.

I've not seen one single person with an Android tablet. I see iPads all the time - the other day, I saw a dude waiting for a kebab, leaning on the counter with his iPad. I see people around with them all the time.

From Top Gear this season:

JAMES: Oh, and I've fitted my scooter with a touch computer system (shows iPad attached to frame of electric wheelchair)
JEREMY (matter-of-factly): You mean an iPad

The iPad is already something everyone knows. It's already synonymous with tablet.

mattraehl · Mar 13, 2012

I really don't think it makes much sense to lump in Kindles with Android market share.

dBeats · Mar 13, 2012

anti-microsoft said:
Down-vote me if you like but I have a question.

Do shipments mean sold to the consumer or do they mean sold to the retailer?

If it's the latter, what's the point in researching and publishing these numbers?

Pardon my ignorance.

That's the point, you're totally correct. The only real metric should be (Sales) - (Returns) to the CUSTOMER.

I can ship 100 Android devices, sell 50 of them and have 20 returned (for whatever reason, but let's just say because.....it sucked.). That's 30 net sales, but the number they will use is 100. It's a stupid metric.

It's also more accurate for iPad since they sell out the entire inventory for months before the numbers finally start to diverge.

Tom

scoobydoo99 · Mar 13, 2012

It's NOT a tablet!

Munnichs said:
But with the high-end tablets, no one even comes close to apple

By "high-end" tablets, you really mean TABLETS (iPad) vs. e-readers (Fire)

thekeyring said:
As far as tablets go, iPad is clearly a winner. Having just watched a Kindle Fire ad, it looks more like an advance Kindle, than an attempt at a tablet.

Correct. The Fire is NOT a tablet, it's an e-reader. It doesn't deserve to mentioned in the same article as the iPad, let alone compared in terms of sales (or, even worse, "shipped").

Obviously, the iPad is the only game in town when it comes to tablets. But that story gets pretty old and boring if you're an analyst or reporter. So what do you do? Invent a bold competitor in the "tablet" category (nevermind that it's not actually a tablet) and create sensational headlines and stories about how this scrappy little challenger is making gains against the industry heavyweight.

Problem is, it just doesn't pass the laugh test. The Fire has:

no front camera
no rear camera
no microphone
no bluetooth
no GPS
no accelerometer
no compass
no gyroscope
no video out
no ambient light sensor
lower resolution
less RAM
worse performance
less storage

no App store with 200,000 apps

and, finally, it's not full size.

It's like telling me you have a new car, then taking me to the driveway and showing me a set of 4 wheels. They might be really nice wheels, but it still isn't a car.

TheOrioles33 · Mar 13, 2012

Hmmmmm. Market share or revenue dominance. Sounds like a no brainer to me.

lcm123 · Mar 13, 2012

Just my opinion

Apple will never make a smaller size tablet because it's not practical to the majority of usages. It should be known by now that price is not as important as function, otherwise, the 7" and cheaper tablets would have sold many more than iPad. Most people buy iPads to replace or as an alternative to the laptops/netbook but they don't want to sacrifice the screen size; they don't want to go from viewing 10" screen to 7".

Icaras · Mar 13, 2012

Just like when Apple released sales numbers after the launch of the iPhone 4S in their quarterly earnings call, lets wait until after the new iPad has been in the market for a few months and lets see those numbers again. Like always, we'll see a much different story then.

ftaok · Mar 13, 2012

scoobydoo99 said:
By "high-end" tablets, you really mean TABLETS (iPad) vs. e-readers (Fire)

Correct. The Fire is NOT a tablet, it's an e-reader. It doesn't deserve to mentioned in the same article as the iPad, let alone compared in terms of sales (or, even worse, "shipped").

to me, the Kindle Fire is definately a tablet ... just not one that I'd want to own. To me, a basic definition of a tablet (nowadays) is a touchscreen device that has access to the web and apps (webapps or native). To me, the Fire qualifies as do the dozens of low-end tablets (i.e. Pandigital, Coby, etc).

Problem is, it just doesn't pass the laugh test. The Fire has:

no front camera
no rear camera
no microphone
no bluetooth
no GPS
no accelerometer
no compass
no gyroscope
no video out
no ambient light sensor
lower resolution
less RAM
worse performance
less storage

no App store with 200,000 apps

and, finally, it's not full size.

It's like telling me you have a new car, then taking me to the driveway and showing me a set of 4 wheels. They might be really nice wheels, but it still isn't a car.

Well, the original iPad didn't have some of those things as well ... I think we'd all still call it a tablet.

applesith · Mar 13, 2012

TheOrioles33 said:
Hmmmmm. Market share or revenue dominance. Sounds like a no brainer to me.

AAPL: most valuable company in the world.

JBaker122586 · Mar 13, 2012

So these results are for Q4.

Meaning it's the third quarter iPad 2 was on sale.
And it's the quarter its biggest "competitor" was introduced. And that competitor, the Kindle Fire costs 40% the price of the cheapest iPad, and about 30% of the average iPad selling price.
And iPad 2 outsold it nearly 4 to 1.

Wow.

ftaok · Mar 13, 2012

JBaker122586 said:
So these results are for Q4.

Meaning it's the third quarter iPad 2 was on sale.
And it's the quarter its biggest "competitor" was introduced. And that competitor, the Kindle Fire costs 40% the price of the cheapest iPad, and about 30% of the average iPad selling price.
And iPad 2 outsold it nearly 4 to 1.

Wow.

Nice perspective ... but the ratio between the iPad and the Fire is closer to 3:1.

55% / 17% = 3.2

Apple Retains Majority of Tablet Shipments in 4Q11 as Kindle Fire Drives Android Momentum

macrumors bot

macrumors member

macrumors 6502a

macrumors member

macrumors 68040

macrumors newbie

macrumors 68000

macrumors regular

macrumors 601

macrumors 603

macrumors P6

macrumors 65816

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 68000

macrumors 68000

macrumors 6502

macrumors 6502a

Cancelled

macrumors 6502

macrumors member

macrumors 603

macrumors 603

macrumors 68030

macrumors 65816

macrumors 603

Our Staff