Apple's Share of Tablet Market Sinks on Lack of Product Launches in Early 2013

[cdmoore74]

From what I remember looking at initial tablets in retail stores, most of the time they were not even functional, in marked contrast to Apple stores. I'm not sure how some retail places sell a single tablet.

Your right about stores not having functional models because there was a Asus windows 8 tablet with a screen defect at Office Max. But the reason why I was there was to buy a 32gig Nexus 7 2013 with a 20% coupon bringing the tablet down to $215. Not sure if Apple stores take coupons.
Ultimately does it really matter where you buy goods from if your saving money "legally"? If target knocked off $100 from a iPad 4 are you going to pay $500 at the Apple store when their not willing to price match? It's great that Apple now has their products at Walmart's, Bestbuy's and Target's but all Apple did was turn their stores into showrooms and repair centers with the occasional good deal on a refurb.

And here is the reason why people buy tablets at "some retail places"

https://slickdeals.net/deals/tablet/

 

[ElTorro]

How many new tablets has Samsung released this year?

How many new tablets has Apple released this year?

Statistics can be made to say whatever the writer wants them to say. But let's look at the contributing factors:

-Apple hasn't released a new iPad in 2013.
-Apple released a new iPad last March and 2 new iPads last fall (so reading into year-over-year numbers is ludicrous).
-Samsung has released 3 new tablets this year (the 7, 8 and 10 inch versions of their tab line).

Knee-jerk reactions based on year-over-year market share numbers are far too prevalent here.

Uhm, that's how you explain and defend a dramatic drop in market share that sees Android at almost 70%? It is not an excuse that they didn't release a new product. Obviously Apply is not making what the market wants and as they are a huge company with large resources and a copious amount of cash, they better start cranking out something that will change the trend. Going from 70% to 30% in 5 quarters is not a joke.

But then again, there is no point arguing with the blind fanboys.

 

[gto55]

Maybe, some people are waiting for an iPad Mini Retina with some improvements with a better SOC/GPU, 2GB RAM (like most of the recent Android tablets sold today) and at least 64GB, or more, for the a reasonable price

 

[GoodWatch]

My friend bought an Asus 7" tablet for their kid to have at XMas. Told him he wasted his $$ and should have just bought an iPad Mini. 3 months later they bought an iPad Mini because the Asus just sucked, battery life was bad and the apps crashed for the kid. So that Asus is dead and they don't use it, but it still counted as a sale and someone will count it as a tablet being used when in reality it's in a drawer.

So apart form millions upon millions of tablets that sit in warehouses (shipped but not sold) there are also millions of discarded tablets sitting in drawers (sold but not used)? What a crazy world we live in! I learn something everyday on MR.

 

[LagunaSol]

If Google gets to big and becomes a monopoly

Newsflash: they already are.

 

[jrswizzle]

Uhm, that's how you explain and defend a dramatic drop in market share that sees Android at almost 70%? It is not an excuse that they didn't release a new product. Obviously Apply is not making what the market wants and as they are a huge company with large resources and a copious amount of cash, they better start cranking out something that will change the trend. Going from 70% to 30% in 5 quarters is not a joke.

But then again, there is no point arguing with the blind fanboys.

Yes, lets compare an ecosystem with dozens of OEMs pumping out a boatload of different tablets each year to an ecosystem with one company pumping out two....

But then again, there is no point in arguing with someone who makes comments like the bolded.

People like you love to stir the "fanboy" fire. My only point: OBVIOUSLY Android SHOULD dominate marketshare. Operating System A, with Company A making 5 products vs Operating System B, with Companies B, C, D, E, F, G, H and I making hundreds of products......

You people obviously don't understand common sense? Furthermore, common sense is no indicator or predictor of an Apple collapse. Unfortunately for those who seem to pray for Apple to crumble, it won't happen.

 

[Dmunjal]

Newsflash: they already are.

Really? There is no other competition in search?

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2275863/Google-Bing-Both-Win-More-Search-Market-Share

67%? Hardly a monopoly. Apple had more share in tablets two years ago and no one ever said that was a monopoly.

 

[lleyts]

Still, the questionable "shipped" data doesn't match real world actual usage data.

- or - 'real world' ACTUAL SALES DATA !!!

(wonder if they count all the rt and surface tabs on shelfs too?)

 

[Dave00]

I couldn't agree with you more.

I travel quite a bit, and spend a fair amount of time every month in airplanes and airports. But I have NEVER seen a tablet that wasn't an iPad or iPad mini.

Couldn't agree more. Haven't traveled much outside the US lately, but domestically I see people with tablets all the time, and they are nearly always iPads. The few that aren't are usually e-readers. Phones, yes. See lots of people with android phones. But not android tablets.

 

[lawrance]

Starting Numbers

I don't buy these numbers for two reasons...

1) The chart is bogus to start with. The iPad was released April 3, 2010. Apple had no competition for a full year. Yet the graph shows Apple only had about 64% market share in April 2011. Bollocks! They had like 98% market share as there were virtually no other tablets even for sale at that point.

2) I've only seen a handful of off-brand tablets in the general public, (like less than 10) where as I've seen hundreds of people with iPad's. (Maybe even over 1,000) I'm just not buying that there are that many off-brand tablets in the market place. IF there are, people are not taking them out of their house and using them for anything important. If they are so cheap that they can't be used for anything serious, what's the point of existence?

Very few tablets even offer cellular service. The iPad is one of the few that offers this option. So even if the numbers are accurate (which I highly doubt) about the only serious business tablet is the iPad. I doubt Apple is upset about "marketshare" since they own the majority of profits from this segment too.

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Maybe, some people are waiting for an iPad Mini Retina with some improvements with a better SOC/GPU, 2GB RAM (like most of the recent Android tablets sold today) and at least 64GB, or more, for the a reasonable price

BINGO!

You just described me!

 

[macs4nw]

.....In other words... more market share doesn't mean a damn thing

It was Steve's mantra to make the best products, period. Profits and sales numbers were always secondary to that.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

I guess the average yearly numbers are relevant and to me always the internet usage.

 

[Michael Scrip]

It was Steve's mantra to make the best products, period. Profits and sales numbers were always secondary to that.

Yep!

Remember the "we can't ship junk" statement he made?

 

[Ryth]

Problem is a lot of Apple supporters use the wrong argument (e.g. shipped vs sold). Doesn't matter if these firms are using shipped or sold figures. What matters is we don't have good insight in to how they arrive at their numbers (especially future years predictions) and when they do adjust future years from what they previously forecasted no one questions it. Like Strategy Analytics creating this "white box" category and then adjusting prior reports for this category. I'm sorry but at that point they're just pulling numbers out of their you know what.

Exactly and there is no way we can ever figure out where they get their #s from. Unless the company reports sales and returns, it's all just speculation and shouldn't even be valued IMO.

The only thing that should matter is profit because that tells the majority of the story.

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So apart form millions upon millions of tablets that sit in warehouses (shipped but not sold) there are also millions of discarded tablets sitting in drawers (sold but not used)? What a crazy world we live in! I learn something everyday on MR.

Actually there are millions upon millions of tablets that sit in warehouses and that are not ever sold and returned to vendor. That was already proven in the SS vs Apple trial a few years back when Samsung had to reveal actual sales and had only sold 1.4 million tablets where firms were saying they had shipped 10s of millions of units. Reality vs Shipped.

Start asking around about those tablets in drawers that get no usage. They exist in the Android world especially.

----------

Yes, lets compare an ecosystem with dozens of OEMs pumping out a boatload of different tablets each year to an ecosystem with one company pumping out two....

But then again, there is no point in arguing with someone who makes comments like the bolded.

People like you love to stir the "fanboy" fire. My only point: OBVIOUSLY Android SHOULD dominate marketshare. Operating System A, with Company A making 5 products vs Operating System B, with Companies B, C, D, E, F, G, H and I making hundreds of products......

You people obviously don't understand common sense? Furthermore, common sense is no indicator or predictor of an Apple collapse. Unfortunately for those who seem to pray for Apple to crumble, it won't happen.

No they don't. And also they don't understand that market share really doesn't matter , it's profit.

If you have 75% market share because you put out a ton of crap products from A-Z and only get 25% of the profit, and your competition puts out A,B,C and has 25% market share and gets 75% of the profit, you're not winning...not by a long shot. In fact, common sense would tell you that you're losing badly and working hard for hardly any profit.

And as that 25% market share goes up, their profit is going to go higher then 75%.

Meanwhile the company that can only grow by 25% in share can only reduce their profit because they'll have to continue to even put out more products that barely make ANY profit.

 

[Liquorpuki]

I don't buy these numbers for two reasons...

1) The chart is bogus to start with. The iPad was released April 3, 2010. Apple had no competition for a full year. Yet the graph shows Apple only had about 64% market share in April 2011. Bollocks! They had like 98% market share as there were virtually no other tablets even for sale at that point.

Galaxy Tab and whiteboxes, basically all the fast followers

2) I've only seen a handful of off-brand tablets in the general public, (like less than 10) where as I've seen hundreds of people with iPad's. (Maybe even over 1,000) I'm just not buying that there are that many off-brand tablets in the market place. IF there are, people are not taking them out of their house and using them for anything important. If they are so cheap that they can't be used for anything serious, what's the point of existence?

Not a lot of whiteboxes in the US. In Asia though, a different story

 

[Lancer]

I think this is yet another reason why Apple needs a shorter 6 month product cycle, yes some customers are not going to like their new iPad being superseded so quickly but tech is changing so quick it needs to be done. Some goes for the iPhone!

 

[b3ats]

I think Apple need to wake up and realise that people can't simply afford to buy an iPad and iPhone in the same quarter.

I'm still on my iPad 3 and brought the iPhone 5 when it came out and an iPad Mini for the kids at Christmas because I'd got enough time to accumulate the extra cash to purchase them outright.

I personally believe that if they bring everything out at the end of the year then they'll struggle to sell as much.

With a new iPad, Mini, iPhone, iWatch?, iPod and god knows what else "i" coming out within such a small space of time where does the cash come from to buy those things? --and god knows I want them... all!

 

[dragje]

That's impressive, to loose a marketshare from close to 70% to round about 30% and going deeper down... in just a little bit more then one year time...

Apple has lost it's 'cool' factor. For me personally it's nostalgia all over. I'm using Apple products from back in the days I was being laughed at by my colleagues. Sounds weird, but kinda miss that period I wouldn't mind Apple become a small player once again for several reasons.

----------

I think Apple need to wake up and realise that people can't simply afford to buy an iPad and iPhone in the same quarter.

Well I agree on this. Bring out a tablet or a phone each year but come up with some significant different each two years or so. So, each year apple can focus on product c.q. hardware improvements and each two year come up with something truly remarkable and 'new' product.

Many people aspect Apple to be a leading player when it comes to inventions, and to be inventive in that context. But the 'inventive' has gone a bit down the hill...

I'm still on my iPad 3 and brought the iPhone 5 when it came out and an iPad Mini for the kids at Christmas because I'd got enough time to accumulate the extra cash to purchase them outright.

Agree on this as well. iPhones should last for at least three to four years. I noticed tough that with iOS updates most old devices of Apples, especially starting from two generations ago, get slow with each new iOS release.

I personally believe that if they bring everything out at the end of the year then they'll struggle to sell as much.

With a new iPad, Mini, iPhone, iWatch?, iPod and god knows what else "i" coming out within such a small space of time where does the cash come from to buy those things? --and god knows I want them... all!

 

[the8thark]

Shipped vs Sold.

Almsot 100% shipped for Apple are sold. Is this the same for the competition? I would not think so. Thus nice but ultimately useless data. Unless you want to work out how much dead unsellable stock of the non Apple tablets are sitting on store shelves.

 

[cdmoore74]

Shipped vs Sold.

Almsot 100% shipped for Apple are sold.

Wow!!! Really? With a comment like that all iPad's are flying off the store shelves at incredible break neck speeds. Or maybe Apple is not shipping anymore to be sold? That's even better news!

 

[adnbek]

Uhm, that's how you explain and defend a dramatic drop in market share that sees Android at almost 70%? It is not an excuse that they didn't release a new product. Obviously Apply is not making what the market wants and as they are a huge company with large resources and a copious amount of cash, they better start cranking out something that will change the trend. Going from 70% to 30% in 5 quarters is not a joke.

But then again, there is no point arguing with the blind fanboys.

It's inevitable. Apple was a first mover and created a new class of product with iPhones and iPads. Of course their market share can only stay as high as they did for so long until a plethora of imitators do the same and enter the market. It's not because Apple isn't making what people want, it's because others have joined the fray and releasing smartphones and tablets in large quantities and varieties and, most importantly, cheaper. Their sales are still very good. It's just that sales of cheaper alternatives have grown as they've become more and more prevalent.

Look at Apple's PC division. It's held on to its 10-15% marketshare for like forever and it's still the most profitable PC company, while HP and Dell, the top 2 vendors in terms of market share, struggle financially.

For the good majority of consumers, price supersedes any other factor in deciding what they buy. Look at all the tablets being sold at your local big box store or online. 80% is worthless junk but people will buy them because they're cheap. Who cares if the screen sucks, it's slow and probably won't get used much. They walk into the store, see a tablet at $100 and say "oh cool, that's cheap" and buy it without realizing what a pile of junk it actually is. Of course, a lot won't even get sold but will still count in these "shipped" figures.

Anyway, all this to say that Apple can keep going after the smaller premium market (which they have a firm hold on) and let other vendors fight it out over the larger "cheap" market, selling cheap junk. Just like with PCs. This strategy has always worked for them so why would Apple change their strategy now? They're not going to just make cheap products just to look better in terms of market share. Let the other vendors compete on razor thin margins, while Apple carves its very profitable niche and holds on to it.

 

[AppleScruff1]

So apart form millions upon millions of tablets that sit in warehouses (shipped but not sold) there are also millions of discarded tablets sitting in drawers (sold but not used)? What a crazy world we live in! I learn something everyday on MR.

I would love to see that warehouse with all of those unsold Android phones and tablets. It must be enormous! And those silly companies just keep making tens of millions more tablets and phones to ship to that gigantic warehouse since nobody buys anything they make. No wonder Samsung is going broke!

 

[RetepNamenots]

I would love to see that warehouse with all of those unsold Android phones and tablets. It must be enormous! And those silly companies just keep making tens of millions more tablets and phones to ship to that gigantic warehouse since nobody buys anything they make. No wonder Samsung is going broke!

I'm not sure if you're being serious or not.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

Yah this was just like those calling doom and gloom when the 4S was pushed by 3 months and Apple's supposed % of the market was down, then magically blew up again in October.

All these quarter reports make no sense.

 

[lazard]

Shipped vs Sold.

Almsot 100% shipped for Apple are sold.

Verizon would like to disagree