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U.S. Non-iPad Tablet Market Led by TouchPad Fire Sales as iPad's Domination Continues
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As I wrote in another thread MS was absent.
Windoof 8 (Germans will get this) is probably only pulling even with ios5.
To then attempt to get people to switch to a "me too" product vs. the ipad and just match the best is quite an undertaking. The ipad user base is also quite a number to catch up to.
At one point consumers will be saturated with smart devices and just go for spec exchanges.
If Microsoft needs a slogan for a new device, feel free to use this one:
Zune to be discontinued!
so what are the iPad numbers (during the same time)...or do we not have them yet?
Apple has it right. Specs "used to mean something" when it was all a specs race.
Now it has shifted to a "what can you do race"
The great thing with these new "iPad Killers" and the media hype around them is some of that media then goes on to say well, it is nice but it is "missing" these features that the iPad has. The other ting is people might buy an iPad Killer only to find their friends' iPads are still better.
And it stems from the App Store and when you have purchases that can convert easily, why go with a new system later on, just buy the "best" now.
Apple has it right. Specs "used to mean something" when it was all a specs race.
Now it has shifted to a "what can you do race"
The great thing with these new "iPad Killers" and the media hype around them is some of that media then goes on to say well, it is nice but it is "missing" these features that the iPad has. The other ting is people might buy an iPad Killer only to find their friends' iPads are still better.
And it stems from the App Store and when you have purchases that can convert easily, why go with a new system later on, just buy the "best" now.
I think so. Sales may pickup since they are now liquidating.
RIM says they'll keep on making them... but announcing that they are 'committed to their product' are usually famous last words.
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I appreciate the curt response, but I was saying in reference to Apple's percent of sales in the tablet market. I know, you were just being funny though.
Thank you.
That was my first thought as well. It is mind boggling to wrap your head around how badly RIM has failed in the past two years.
That was my first thought as well. It is mind boggling to wrap your head around how badly RIM has failed in the past two years.
Well it choose to ignore Apple instead of copying apple (android)
Actually, what's interesting about HP in this list is that they offered a non-Android tablet.
So if this is showing that only 1.2 million NON iPad tablets were sold in the first 10 months of the year, and HP has 17% of that number, that means only
996,000 Android tablets were sold.
Under a million is a huge kick in the pants for Android. That's less than 100,000 units per month when Apple has days and weeks of selling that quantity of iPads.
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I hate percentages, because they often make something look better than it is.
Like when a report comes out that says, "Apple drops in tablets to only 74% share of the market." Break out the units baby. It's far more interesting of a story.
Though, I take any reports the stem from analysts with a grain of salt. All these companies are trying to keep their actual numbers secret, and this is just a big guessing game. This also contradicts 10 other reports that all contradict one another. The only thing they all have in common is that they show poor sales of Android tablets. (Android also had fire sales in the past year as well, mostly the first groupings of 3G carried tied tablets that were given away for data plan contracts <hello 1st gen Galaxy Tab 7!> This also inflates Android numbers to look better than they are. Not to mention, all the Wal-Greens tablets for $69-$149 out in the wild that count to Android sales numbers. Oh, and Nook Color is in these numbers too.)
My 2 cents: The iPad lets you jump right into a media/app experience with no fuss and great ease of use, along with unchallenged content offerings. It's less clear the the end user when they pick up an Android tablet on how to actually get in there and do something with it. Android tablets also need a hog load of resources to run with the same performance of IOS, and that limits pricing competitiveness to a lot of vendors. What's ironic there, is the companies that should be able to procure components at the lowest costs aren't the ones combating with price, except maybe Toshiba. The lower cost tablets come from smaller companies who have to be sacrificing quite a bit of margin to get their tablets in the wild at sub iPad prices. (Though those take some design hits and have a cheapness about them too.)
Alas, these really aren't the droids you're looking for.
TouchPad's OS still alive and kicking
As an iOS developer and an iPhone and iPad owner, and for the last 2 months, a TouchPad owner, I must say that Palm/HP had a good thing going with WebOS on a tablet. It didn't quite work well on their smartphones, but on the tablet, it gives iOS a real competitor.
While the TouchPad might be dead [you can still buy them at TigerDirect and other places though], they are continuing to release OS updates and make it more stable and quicker.
Some of the design/UI features of the TouchPad's OS really compare favorably to the iPad - you can see Apple's influence, but instead of making a cheap knock off [like Android], Palm/HP thought outside the box and did some things differently and they really work. Apple UI folks could certainly benefit from a few hours with a TouchPad.
I harken the TouchPad to the Amiga - back when it was a PC/Mac world, the Amiga was the "dark horse" that did some things better than both PCs and Macs, but never caught on like PCs and Macs did. The TouchPad really reminds me of that, and I hope the community and the developers [they are still plenty of WebOS devs and 3rd party WebOS devs around] continue to make the platform survive and get better.
As an iOS developer and an iPhone and iPad owner, and for the last 2 months, a TouchPad owner, I must say that Palm/HP had a good thing going with WebOS on a tablet. It didn't quite work well on their smartphones, but on the tablet, it gives iOS a real competitor.
While the TouchPad might be dead [you can still buy them at TigerDirect and other places though], they are continuing to release OS updates and make it more stable and quicker.
Some of the design/UI features of the TouchPad's OS really compare favorably to the iPad - you can see Apple's influence, but instead of making a cheap knock off [like Android], Palm/HP thought outside the box and did some things differently and they really work. Apple UI folks could certainly benefit from a few hours with a TouchPad.
I harken the TouchPad to the Amiga - back when it was a PC/Mac world, the Amiga was the "dark horse" that did some things better than both PCs and Macs, but never caught on like PCs and Macs did. The TouchPad really reminds me of that, and I hope the community and the developers [they are still plenty of WebOS devs and 3rd party WebOS devs around] continue to make the platform survive and get better.
The fire does what the iPad does.... it lets the user jump right into their content without several steps or confusing screens to navigate through, and it's a content laden device with nice integration that regular Android tablets lack. Oh, and that $199 price tag sure is a kick in everyone's pants.
Everyone keeps saying that the Fire isn't an iPad killer/contender, but it really is the tablet that has the potential to compete. Amazon's forcast for sales through the end of the year is larger than the number of Android tablets this report claims were sold in the first 10 months. Not that you can call this a true Android tablet... Amazon did a great job of customizing the interface/user experience. (They threw out all the crap that makes Android a drag. Good show Amazon!)
And we all know Amazon is readying it's 10" tablet for early next year... That's what I'm holding out for. The Fire doesn't lack anything I'd ever use (I'm so not using a tablet as a camera, video calling has always been a goofy nitch that the masses try once and forget about.) except maybe blue tooth for a keyboard accessory, which is something I could see them bothering with on a 10". Who wants to use a 7" tablet with a physical keyboard????
If they can roll a 10" at say... $299.... that's where this will get really interesting. And dare I say, I think that's exactly that sweet spot they'd go for. There are tons of $399 10" Android tablets out there, and they seem happy to cut the fat and leave no comparison in price.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't there only a few hundred apps for the touch pad? And mobile Web OS never crossed 5,000 apps (over 1400 of those were web, home brew, and beta apps to be generous).
While I think WebOS is great and agree with your comments, to say there is still developer support for the platform is a bid absurd, considering it never had much developer support to begin with.
Next to cheap hardware builds, the lack of apps and developer interest is what killed Palm and then HP with WebOS. "Hmm, this phone is this companies last breath of life before they die and offers almost no content.... this Andoid and IOS stuff has tons of content and support and isn't going anyway, and the phones don't feel like a dollar store kids toy."
Developers might even like the platform, but with 3 other platforms (not you RIM, sorry) to keep them occupied that can make them money, it's no wonder.
And you say you're an IOS developer? So why didn't you develop for WebOS? I'm guessing because you might as well have set your time and money on fire.
Nope, pretty sure it means Android tablets SUCK if the discontinued device sold more than them. After the firesale, in the next report, we won't see Android tablets pick up the slack and take off suddenly. In other words, the Touchpad wasn't stealing many would-be Andoid tablet sales.
If HP would have shipped glass bricks they still would have ranked where they did, as this survey counted units put into retailer's hands, not units sold to end users. As it was, the units ended up in user's hands due to the fire sale.
Interesting enough the RIMM tablets didn't even make this generous survey...even though they advertised TRUE multitasking and Flash support...I guess that didn't mean squat to the public.
Anyway, these kinds of reports are really music to my ears. I don't mind competition as long as Apple is still the dominate player and leading the market for a better and easier UI.
If the xoom was $99 you dot think it would sell as well as the touchpad did because "Android tablets SUCK"?
The Touchpad sucked too, so I'm sure if the Xoom was $99, it would sell. That is an appropriate price for something of that caliber. I'd say it would be worth $99. But definitely not $699 or however much it was originally. The Touchpad was not worth $499. At $99, it was worth the money. I'm not denying why the Touchpad was #2, but I'm just pointing out that the Touchpad likely did not cannibalize Android sales. After the Touchpad, the iPad market will still be the, well the iPad market. There effectively is no tablet market. Now that there are no more Touchpads, effectively, we will not see any boost in Android sales. Unless Android Tablet makers lower the prices of current models.If the xoom was $99 you dot think it would sell as well as the touchpad did because "Android tablets SUCK"?
If you notice, the news headline here calls it the "non-iPad market." Analysts now have to use that phrase because when you lump non-iPad sales with iPad sales on a graph, you cannot see the non-iPad sales. There aren't enough of them. The iPad becomes an outlier and gives the graphs a scale too large to distinguish Android sales. So now, analysts are doing the clever thing of calling it the "non-iPad market", that way they can showcase Android sales. I would actually take it a step further and call it the "Android Tablet Market" and the "iPad Market." Hell, I think even when you make a graph with non-iPad tablet sales and iPad sales, the scale is still too large. Also, don't confuse sales numbers with shipping numbers. A lot of manufactures count sales as shipping to retailers.
By arguing that Android tablets didn't do well in the non-iPad market due to the Touchpad firesale, you're insinuating that once the fire sale is over, the Android tablet sales will either A) increase or B) remain stagnate. It will be option B and that is still not good, nor is it related to the Touchpad. Android tablet sales were slow before the Touchpad firesale, and they'll be slow after. Non-iPad devices are simply not priced right. And the Touchpad firesale proved that.
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True Winner
The only true measure of a product's success in the marketplace is the net profit made on it. This is no different than measuring your success by the net amount you bring home in your paycheck. It shows the customer's perceived value of what's being purchased. The higher the perceived value, the more money made.
Apple products win hands down, no matter how much junk the competition pushes out the door. $81B says it all.
The only true measure of a product's success in the marketplace is the net profit made on it. This is no different than measuring your success by the net amount you bring home in your paycheck. It shows the customer's perceived value of what's being purchased. The higher the perceived value, the more money made.
Apple products win hands down, no matter how much junk the competition pushes out the door. $81B says it all.
I bought a TP and at $99 is hard to make an argument that it was not worth it. You need to understand it's limitations and remember that it's not an iPad before purchasing. After using it for awhile I'm still amazed HP tried to sell them for $500.
a TouchPad Fire is the lot of tablets that Amazon bought from HP for $99.
Amazon removed PalmOS and installed Android, rebranded it, and marked it up to $199.
This is really pathetic that there isn't even one tablet that sold fairly well, ie, a few million units. Are the Android tablets really that bad? I have only played around with them for a few minutes a couple of times so I am not qualified to judge. There's no question that the iPad is the top tablet, but why isn't there anything else that is a distant second? In the smartphone market there is lots of competition and the sales are more evenly divided.
It's not that they're bad, it's the price on them. We know people will buy tablets if the price is lower. And I can prove this. When the Touchpad went on sale for 100 bucks, everyone was trying to get one. The Kindle fire is likely to sell well because of the price.
I think the main reason that the tablet market hasn't followed the smartphone market is distribution. Smartphones are typically purchased through a carrier. Tablets, not so much. A tablet purchase ~$500 is not really seen as a 2 year commitment as cell phones are (~free, $99, $199).
So when you boil it down, Apple has a huge advantage in terms of distributing tablets. They sell them at every Apple Store, Target, Walmart, Best Buy, etc. Where can you buy a non-iPad tablet? Pretty much the same big box retailers, but there's no single source for people to go to learn about a Samsung Tab. Apple has these cool stores with enthusiastic people showing them how to do cool ***** with the iPad. Samsung has some over-worked, over-tired, under-trained worker at Walmart showing people these tablets. The message just doesn't get through.
BTW, most of these tablet displays at the big box retailers look like crap. It doesn't help deliver your message if the display is full of me-too look-a-likes and smudgy screen tablets that may or may not actually work.
But people have no problem buying the iPad at full price. Why not one other tablet that sold well at the $500 price point?
Because even though Apple has some expensive products, people buy it because it's Apple products and most people don't care about price when it's an Apple product.