Another Study Shows Non-iOS Tablets Surpassing iPad in Global Market Share

[Michael Scrip]

At one time Apple was the #1 PC maker too.
A lot of help that was.
(Almost all PC makers ran Windows, and compared to OS, the Mac was a tiny minority. )

Also, the reason Apple sells all the iPads it makes is because they cut back on production (see some past MR reports).

The Lifestyle ads are nice but they don't tell the VALUE you get.
Right now people look at what they get for the $, and they see some non-iPad tablets that seem to have most of the same or better features for HUNDRES of $ less then iPad.

It's The 90's Mac Sys 7 vs Windows all over again, but his time there is no Jobs to change the world again.

So what if Apple is not the #1 PC maker? It's not a contest.

If there was a contest... Apple would have been out of the game years ago. The Mac will never "beat" Windows.

But clearly the Mac has a market and people are buying them. Stores do not have to send back unsold Macs.

On the other hand... RIM, HP and Microsoft made tablets that NO ONE WANTED. And they had to get rid of them at a huge loss. That's a big problem for them.

Apple doesn't have to worry about unsold iPads. So what if Apple trims production once in a while? At least they know they can still sell them. Apple is one of the few companies that is in-tune with its supply.

I understand what you're saying. In the general sense... people are buying more cheap tablets than Apple iPads.

But my point is... the iPad is still a valid business... even if the other guys sell more.

And let's be honest... are those $70 tablets you mentioned earlier really a threat to Apple?

 

[PracticalMac]

And let's be honest... are those $70 tablets you mentioned earlier really a threat to Apple?

Actually they are.

The sad fact is, developers base plans on numbers, and when they see a much larger % of Android tabs on market, no matter how useless, they get the false belief it is the best platform to develop on, due to market share.

I am not saying apple needs to make $150, let alone $70, tablets, just they need to adjust price down some (few tens $) as the average tablet price in general plummets.

Also, the loss of market share recently seems to be accelerating.

$50 drop in iOS stuff will Keep customer attention and strong sales, especially after the back order is filled.

Anyway.

 

[Michael Scrip]

Actually they are.

The sad fact is, developers base plans on numbers, and when they see a much larger % of Android tabs on market, no matter how useless, they get the false belief it is the best platform to develop on, due to market share.

I am not saying apple needs to make $150, let alone $70, tablets, just they need to adjust price down some (few tens $) as the average tablet price in general plummets.

Also, the loss of market share recently seems to be accelerating.

$50 drop in iOS stuff will Keep customer attention and strong sales, especially after the back order is filled.

Anyway.

So... more Android tablet market share means more developers will target Android tablets?

Hmmmm... the complete opposite has been demonstrated on smartphones.

The iPhone's market share has trailed behind Android phones for years. Yet developers still target the iPhone first.

Hell... the last number I saw in smartphones was:

80% Android
13% iPhone

Will developers suddenly rush to target that huge amount of Android users?

No... because developers know that most of that huge number is made up of absolutely terrible phones sold in developing nations. You can't go by market share alone.

It's the same with tablets. More Android tablets on the market (including cheap tablets) will not have the effect you think it will.

Pop quiz... which of the following is more valuable to a developer?

A. Ten iPads
B. Ten garbage tablets at $70

Bottom line... developers are not getting fooled by Android market share numbers. They're smarter than that.

And let's be clear on what market share means: It's all the product from all manufacturers sold in a given quarter.

Yes... Apple's "share" number has been going down... chiefly because of all the garbage tablets pumped out into the market.

And that's supposed to be Apple's fault?

I think you're putting too much faith in that market share number. It honestly doesn't mean all that much in the grand scheme of things.

I've said this before: Market share makes a nice headline... but there's not a compelling story after that.

 

[gnasher729]

These non-iPad tablets aren't being used. They are bought because they are popular and end up collecting dusk. You know iPad users are using iPads. Other tablet owners just like owning tablets.

Kindle Fires _are_ used as eBook readers. Of course by having a colour LCD screen like the iPad, the Kindle Fire loses the advantage of the "normal" Kindle; the ability to read it in bright sunlight and the battery life. I guess people buy it because it is more expensive than the Kindle, so people think it must be better.

 

[MattInOz]

They're probably domestic brands in places like China, India and South America that no-one from the west would have ever heard about.

So developers outside of those counties aren't likely to be able to sell software to those users anyway?

 

[hchung]

Actually they are.

The sad fact is, developers base plans on numbers, and when they see a much larger % of Android tabs on market, no matter how useless, they get the false belief it is the best platform to develop on, due to market share.

I am not saying apple needs to make $150, let alone $70, tablets, just they need to adjust price down some (few tens $) as the average tablet price in general plummets.

Also, the loss of market share recently seems to be accelerating.

$50 drop in iOS stuff will Keep customer attention and strong sales, especially after the back order is filled.

Anyway.

Developers base plans on numbers, indeed.
But there's plenty more relevant numbers than simply market share.

Installed base: Because the actual number of usable devices that could run your software on each platform matters.

Device usage statistics: Because if you targeted 1st gen Nexus 7 users as your primary customer base, you just found out that all the ones who actually heavily used their devices degraded them to the point of uselessness 6 months after buying them. (Fixed in 4.3)

Buying habits: Because if you thought you'd get consumer desktop software to sell on Linux, you'd find out buying habit matters.

Development costs: Because if it turns out you need 3x the development team headcount in order to make an Android app that's not even feature parity (BBC), that might need more consideration for some companies.

I fully expected Apple's tablet and phone marketshare to go down. You simply need other competitors to appear and the market to widen up. But by itself, marketshare isn't meaningful enough to make decisions on.

 

[PracticalMac]

I've said this before: Market share makes a nice headline...

BINGO!

I mostly agree with everything you say, but when headlines tout Android as the most popular mobile OS, for the population at large the perception is Android is the way to go.

Yes, yes, absolutly, any developer worth a damm will quickly see how much better iOS is, but there is a lot who do not.

Despite everything, Stalin is right: "Quantity has its own quality".

 

[FightTheFuture]

Source?
I know plenty of people who use nexus and kindle tablets regularly.

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Why do you just assume that iPads are far superior to android tablets? In many cases it's the other way round.

http://www.cultofmac.com/233063/ipads-web-usage-share-hits-5-month-high/#

People use the iPad like crazy. I've used acer Samsung and kindle tablets, besides netflix there really isn't anything setting itself apart from a bigger galaxy phone.

People have to remember that the iPod was dwarfed by thousands of other MP3 players on the market but people still primarily bought the iPod. It really doesn't matter what the marketshare is, as long as apple keeps selling 15-20million iPads a quarter the iPad will continue to dominate. Also keep in mind that the last new iPads were released in October.

 

[PracticalMac]

Developers base plans on numbers, indeed.
But there's plenty more relevant numbers than simply market share.

Installed base: Because the actual number of usable devices that could run your software on each platform matters.

Device usage statistics: Because if you targeted 1st gen Nexus 7 users as your primary customer base, you just found out that all the ones who actually heavily used their devices degraded them to the point of uselessness 6 months after buying them. (Fixed in 4.3)

Buying habits: Because if you thought you'd get consumer desktop software to sell on Linux, you'd find out buying habit matters.

Development costs: Because if it turns out you need 3x the development team headcount in order to make an Android app that's not even feature parity (BBC), that might need more consideration for some companies.

I fully expected Apple's tablet and phone marketshare to go down. You simply need other competitors to appear and the market to widen up. But by itself, marketshare isn't meaningful enough to make decisions on.

I (also) mostly agree with everything you say, but when headlines tout Android as the most popular mobile OS, for the population at large the perception is Android is the way to go.

I am sure one can find endless examples of companies who had huge programer departments to write and support Windows apps, but a tiny number to support Mac. I even know of one company that had one coder do Mac part of time, and a volunteer fix bugs the coder did not have time to fix.

The fact is, companies are more then ready to hire larger number of programmers to make working apps on a crappy platform simply because it is the dominant platform.

Despite everything, Stalin is right: "Quantity has its own quality".
Numbers (market share) DO matter.

 

[hchung]

I (also) mostly agree with everything you say, but when headlines tout Android as the most popular mobile OS, for the population at large the perception is Android is the way to go.

I am sure one can find endless examples of companies who had huge programer departments to write and support Windows apps, but a tiny number to support Mac. I even know of one company that had one coder do Mac part of time, and a volunteer fix bugs the coder did not have time to fix.

The fact is, companies are more then ready to hire larger number of programmers to make working apps on a crappy platform simply because it is the dominant platform.

Despite everything, Stalin is right: "Quantity has its own quality".
Numbers (market share) DO matter.

I too agree with most things you say. But while companies are hiring more Android developers these days, it doesn't hurt iOS users as long as most companies continue to develop on iOS first and make the iOS app better. Small companies can't afford to target a platform that, in general, costs more and brings in less profit. Until Android's SDK improves greatly, I don't see that changing.

Heck, last week, I downloaded the Windows Phone SDK to take a peek. Having an audience grateful for any apps at all, with a less difficult development environment, might be enough of a win for me for side projects.

 

[blitzer09x87]

so what, it's not about the quantity, it's about the quality. it would be more fair to compare ipad with just one other company's particular tablet, not with the whole android gang

 

[Oletros]

Development costs: Because if it turns out you need 3x the development team headcount in order to make an Android app that's not even feature parity (BBC), that might need more consideration for some companies.

All of the Android development need 3x of the people needed to do iOS development?

Apart of the BBC case, can you show any case more?