Research Firm Claims iPad Only Has 61% of Tablet Market

MacRumors · Jul 21, 2011

The iPad has a 61 percent share of the tablet market in the last quarter, according to research firm Strategy Analytics -- but not everyone is convinced that its numbers are accurate.

The firm claims Android increased its share to 30 percent, up from just 2.9 percent a year ago, when Apple claimed 94.3 percent of the tablet market. But Daring Fireball's John Gruber isn't buying it.

Looks like those numbers are for units shipped, not units sold. Except that for Apple those numbers are one and the same, because they're selling iPads as fast as they can make them. Judging by Google's own numbers for Android OS versions in use, it sure seems like a lot of Android 3 tablets are sitting on store shelves.

Gruber points out that same research firm, Strategy Analytics, placed iPads at a 75 percent share in the holiday quarter last year -- but it only looked at shipped products. Not those actually in the hands of customers.

In its earnings call earlier this week, Apple COO Tim Cook noted that at the end of the June quarter "we were still selling every unit we could make during the quarter and that was the situation as we ended the quarter."

During the same call, Tim Cook had much to say about how Android "activation" numbers are calculated versus iOS:

I think the Android activation number is a difficult one to get our hands around, because unlike our numbers, which you can kind of go to our data sheet and you can add the iPods and the iPads and make a reasonable approximation of the iPod touch which spans over half of our iPod sales. You can quickly see that in the June quarter that we sold over 33 million iOS devices and across time, as Peter mentioned in his opening comments, we are now over 222 million cumulative iOS devices. And so we think this is incredible. And so our numbers are very straight forward, they're transparent and they're reported quarterly.

With Apple selling record numbers of iOS devices, and recording record profits, the Apple brass don't seem too concerned with Android's tablet numbers.

Regardless, with the public buying every iPad Apple can make, there doesn't seem to be much Apple needs to do -- other than build more iPads.

Article Link: Research Firm Claims iPad Only Has 61% of Tablet Market

dethmaShine · Jul 21, 2011

I call that ********.

I have yet to see an Android/Windows/Nokia/HP tablet in the market being actually used by some people. Maybe there are those people; but 40% tablets other than the iPad comes as a shock to me.

Who is buying those tablets? No one's buying PlayBook OR Motorola XOOM or ...

I really like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the ASUS Transfer. But they together couldn't take 20% of the market.

res1233 · Jul 21, 2011

What did they do? Survey people who went to Android.com? This seems unlikely.

NebulaClash · Jul 21, 2011

It's very simple folks: look at the tablets you see in use. Are iPads only making up 6 out of every 10? No? You see more like 8 or 9 out of every 10? That's how you know this study (like so many) is flawed.

The iPad is dominating the tablet market in such a way that certain other companies are trying to find ways to create market studies that show otherwise. It's an old game.

macrumors12345 · Jul 21, 2011

Shipped, not sold...

We've seen this story before. After all, Samsung claimed it had already sold 2 million Tabs six months ago.

mrtune · Jul 21, 2011

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

61%? I'm not buying it. I haven't even seen a tablet other than an iPad in the wild yet.

All I see is iPads and Kindles out there. But I don't consider a Kindle a tablet.

dejo · Jul 21, 2011

NebulaClash said:
It's very simple folks: look at the tablets you see in use. Are iPads only making up 6 out of every 10? No? You see more like 8 or 9 out of every 10? That's how you know this study (like so many) is flawed.

Looking at "tablets in use" (a very personal, subjective thing) is an even more-flawed approach (not that I really agree with Strategy Analytics' numbers).

nagromme · Jul 21, 2011

dethmaShine said:
I call that ********.

I have yet to see an Android/Windows/Nokia/HP tablet in the market being actually used by some people. Maybe there are those people; but 40% tablets other than the iPad comes as a shock to me.

Who is buying those tablets? No one's buying PlayBook OR Motorola XOOM or ...

I really like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the ASUS Transfer. But they together couldn't take 20% of the market.

I know one Xoom owner, who is a die-hard Apple hater (no facts or reason required). So I’ve seen one of those—and some attempts to get it to do anything as well as the iPad. (“This can do that too!” is seldom accurate in practice.) I also once saw a super-cheap Android tablet from Asia, at a hobby event, which could do very little and had broken repeatedly. So the proud owner showed off its features.... via videos played on his “backup” tablet: an iPad!

Other than those two, I have never seen a non-iPad tablet in the wild.

Porco · Jul 21, 2011

I wonder how many of the 39% were tablets prescribed by a doctor?

Stella · Jul 21, 2011

dethmaShine said:
I call that ********.

I have yet to see an Android/Windows/Nokia/HP tablet in the market being actually used by some people. Maybe there are those people; but 40% tablets other than the iPad comes as a shock to me.

Who is buying those tablets? No one's buying PlayBook OR Motorola XOOM or ...

I really like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the ASUS Transfer. But they together couldn't take 20% of the market.

Nokia don't have a tablet... thats why you've never seen one.

OllyW · Jul 21, 2011

mrtune said:
61%? I'm not buying it. I haven't even seen a tablet other than an iPad in the wild yet.

I haven't seen any tablet in the wild yet.

coder12 · Jul 21, 2011

OllyW said:
I haven't seen any tablet in the wild yet.

Walk in tall grass with lots of Poké Balls, eventually you'll see and catch one.

I've been blessed with the opportunity of mass-deploying iPads for our school, only 1120 left to go! I've yet to see anything other than an iPad in the wild also.

paul4339 · Jul 21, 2011

the report is for the period ending Dec 31 2010.
What good is that info?

Asus, Acer, Motorola, RIM, HP didn't have any offering; and Apple didn't release the iPad 2 yet. It was basically Samsung Galaxy tab vs. iPad 1 - and that's old news.

Since then, ASUS, Acer and maybe Samsung are the only one that seem to be selling, but iPad 2 has been flying off the shelves.

.

NebulaClash · Jul 21, 2011

dejo said:
Looking at "tablets in use" (a very personal, subjective thing) is an even more-flawed approach (not that I really agree with Strategy Analytics' numbers).

Unless you are a researcher, it's the best we can do on a personal level. And when something is supposed to be as popular as Android devices are supposed to be (according to all those studies), you'd think we see more of them around in the wild the way we do Apple devices.

cleric · Jul 21, 2011

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Units shipped not sold!

Inopia-Vi · Jul 21, 2011

Who knows how high is the stockpile of android tablet at locals FutureShop, Staples and Best Buy... Too high?

LizKat · Jul 21, 2011

NebulaClash said:
It's very simple folks: look at the tablets you see in use. Are iPads only making up 6 out of every 10? No? You see more like 8 or 9 out of every 10? That's how you know this study (like so many) is flawed.

The iPad is dominating the tablet market in such a way that certain other companies are trying to find ways to create market studies that show otherwise. It's an old game.

those other guys all have a copy of How to Lie With Statistics (by Darrell Huff, illustrated by Irving Geis), an illuminating little book first published in 1954, and featured in most economics curricula ever since.

Rodimus Prime · Jul 21, 2011

nagromme said:
I know one Xoom owner, who is a die-hard Apple hater (no facts or reason required). So Ive seen one of thoseand some attempts to get it to do anything as well as the iPad. (This can do that too! is seldom accurate in practice.) I also once saw a super-cheap Android tablet from Asia, at a hobby event, which could do very little and had broken repeatedly. So the proud owner showed off its features.... via videos played on his backup tablet: an iPad!

Other than those two, I have never seen a non-iPad tablet in the wild.

Well you have to remember those craplets are not counted by Google.

As for the survay I would not call it that good. 61% is way WAY to low for iPad market share.

As for tablets in the wild I have seen a few different ones when I have gone out to eat at lunch some around campus but for the most part I do not see any tablets. The ones I do see are mostly iPads but I have seen clearly some of the others.

I personally would love to get my hands on a galaxy tab but can not justify the cost. I am not locked into the Apple eco system but tablets just are not something I really am digging yet.

S.Jobs · Jul 21, 2011

So 2 devices have 61% of the market while the 39% left is divided up with like 100s of devices with different operating software. Good for you apple :apple:

HiRez · Jul 21, 2011

I've seen a total of 3 Android tablets that I can remember...ever. iPads? There's at least 6 people within 50 feet of me here at work who I know have them, and I've seen many others out on the street.

NebulaClash · Jul 21, 2011

I was recently at an airport where, in a gadget shop, I saw a bunch of tablets. First time I've ever seen any of them. I had not even heard of some of them.

I see iPads being used almost every day. Whoever cooked up this survey needs to realize that when you push propaganda, you need to make it at least semi-believable.

res1233 · Jul 21, 2011

NebulaClash said:
I was recently at an airport where, in a gadget shop, I saw a bunch of tablets. First time I've ever seen any of them. I had not even heard of some of them.

I see iPads being used almost every day. Whoever cooked up this survey needs to realize that when you push propaganda, you need to make it at least semi-believable.

No, you don't. You just have to cover it with stuff people want to hear. You can make people believe anything that way.

tzeshan · Jul 21, 2011

Of course since these things are called Android tablets.

http://www.buydig.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=ARC70250GB
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00382003000P?sid=I0084400010000100600&aff=Y
http://www.buy.com/prod/coby-kyros-...-ghz-black-800-x-600/q/loc/101/221637867.html

marksman · Jul 21, 2011

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_4 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8K2 Safari/6533.18.5)

This is some top notch research. Anyone who can spell tablet knows this is not true.

*LTD* · Jul 21, 2011

Here's the answer to anyone's question regarding this issue, and it's already in the article:

MacRumors said:
In its earnings call earlier this week, Apple COO Tim Cook noted that at the end of the June quarter "we were still selling every unit we could make during the quarter and that was the situation as we ended the quarter."

During the same call, Tim Cook had much to say about how Android "activation" numbers are calculated versus iOS:

I think the Android activation number is a difficult one to get our hands around, because unlike our numbers, which you can kind of go to our data sheet and you can add the iPods and the iPads and make a reasonable approximation of the iPod touch which spans over half of our iPod sales. You can quickly see that in the June quarter that we sold over 33 million iOS devices and across time, as Peter mentioned in his opening comments, we are now over 222 million cumulative iOS devices. And so we think this is incredible. And so our numbers are very straight forward, they're transparent and they're reported quarterly.

With Apple selling record numbers of iOS devices, and recording record profits, the Apple brass don't seem too concerned with Android's tablet numbers.

Regardless, with the public buying every iPad Apple can make, there doesn't seem to be much Apple needs to do -- other than build more iPads.

Article Link: Research Firm Claims iPad Only Has 61% of Tablet Market

Research Firm Claims iPad Only Has 61% of Tablet Market

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