Android Tablet Sales Narrow The iPad's Lead (UPDATE)

UPDATE:

Android's gains on the iPad may not have been as significant as Strategy Analytics initially reported in Business Week. According to the Wall Street Journal, Samsung shipped two million Samsung Galaxy Tabs, rather than having sold two million devices. The WSJ transcript includes an exchange with a Samsung exec, who when pressed on an earnings call, said that actual sales were "quite small."

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They might be "bizarre," but Android tablets are gaining on the currently dominant Apple iPad.

According to a report from Strategy Analytics, while total tablet sales globally doubled in the fourth quarter, the loser was the iPad, which saw its market share drop from 96 percent to 75 percent, due mainly to increasing sales of Android tablets. Android tablets took 22 percent of sales, majorly up from the 2.3 percent they accounted for in the previous quarter.

Apple may not have to worry just yet--they still sold more iPads in the fourth quarter than they did in the third, shipping 7.3 million iPads for a 74 percent increase. Android devices went from 100,000 to 2.1 million units shipped.

With several different models available, many believe Android devices will only continue to gain as more varieties hit the market. Google provides free Android operating systems to manufacturers of tablets, a boon for hardware companies looking to enter the market.

The Samsung Galaxy tab was the main driver of Android sales, according to Strategy Analytics, due to its multi-country launch and heavy promotion by Samsung.

Comments

[John Kramarz]

10:38 AM on 02/01/2011

Bad news for Samsung:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/02/01/samsung_galaxy_tab_has_16_return_rate_apples_ipad_just_2.html

So, using the numbers from the HP article, if we assume both sales numbers were sales into channels, and both sold to end users at the same rate (emptying the channels at the same rate, more doubtful for Samsung, but let's assume it anyway)

Android shipped 2.1 million
Apple shipped 7.3
So Apple has 7.3/9.3= 78.5%. But the article came up with 75%? It seems reasonable then, that the 3.5% discrepancy is all the other Android Tablet players, which seems right, since prior market share was Apple at 96%, Android at 4% and since the Galaxy tab would also be stealing sales from the other Androids devices, dropping to 3.5 would make sense. (It ain't no unified Android Army, you know!)
So, the math problem is:
Assuming the ship/final sales rates were equal (no one was stuffing the channel)
Then, seeing a 2% return rate for the iPod, and a 16% return rate for the Android, WHAT would be the new market share numbers (for devices people kept)?

[John Kramarz]

10:47 AM on 02/01/2011

Answer Key:
I figure, after returns, and assuming non-Samsung Android tablets had zero returns, which is being kind, the market share is:
Samsung Android tablets= 19%
Android tablets other than Samsung= 3.7%
iPads= 77.3%

[TheSovereign]

02:08 PM on 02/01/2011

It was released today that the return rate on the Galaxy Tab is 8 times hire than the IPAD. The TAB has a 15% return rate and the IPAD has a 2% return rate.

[John Kramarz]

10:17 AM on 02/01/2011

If I wanted to get an Android, where can I see a listing of all the available apps in the Android Market? It looks like you can only access it on an Android device?
So, you don't know what you can get until you commit to the device?
At least with Apple, you can go to the iTunes store and check out the App selection before you buy.

[ClassicLeft]

03:18 AM on 02/01/2011

Everything, including the update is misleading. Samsung is a single company. The Nook uses android, the Eken uses android, the Archos uses android. Add them all up and lets see the numbers. But don't compare a single hardware vendor with the entire market share of apple's Ipad and take it for the bases of your conclusion.

[NHBill]

09:18 AM on 02/01/2011

don't compare ebook readers to tablets.

[ClassicLeft]

02:03 PM on 02/01/2011

LOL, every time they compare ebook readers they include the apple tablet. The nook color isn't just an ebook reader. It runs android quite nicelly.

[jt1980]

09:48 PM on 01/31/2011

I bought a Nook Color from Barnes and Noble during the Christmas and love it. It's a very-nicely-designed Android tablet in disguise, allowing the reader to peruse not only books, but also magazines/newspapers in full color, with the ability browse/search for resources on the web while going through the book or article. According to BN back in December, the $250 device was selling so briskly that the production line had to produce 18,000 units per day. If that rate keeps up, that's about 7 million additional Android tablets a year. That's where the Android OS wins over the long term because the products it runs on can cover a quite large price range and provide very targeted usage.

[John Kramarz]

09:36 AM on 02/01/2011

"That's where the Android OS wins over the long term "

wins what? seriously, give us a list and explanation of what is won.

[NHBill]

08:06 PM on 01/31/2011

Samsung Galaxy Tab Sales Actually ‘Quite Small’

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/01/31/samsung-galaxy-tab-sales-actually-quite-small/

"In early December, Samsung announced it had sold 1 million, declaring that sales were going “faster than expected.” Then, in early January, Samsung announced sales of 2 million.

But during the company’s quarterly earnings call on Friday, a Samsung executive revealed those figures don’t represent actual sales to consumers. Instead, they are the number of Galaxy Tab devices that Samsung has shipped to wireless companies and retailers around the world.

Pressed by an analyst at an investment bank, the Samsung executive, Lee Young-hee, acknowledged that sales to consumers were “quite small,” though she didn’t give a specific number."

Safe to say the iPad's true market share is still very, very high.

[ClassicLeft]

03:21 AM on 02/01/2011

Is safe to say that you are missing a lot of information. Samsung is only one of the several hardware manufactures that are using Android. Archos is probably selling much faster than the Galaxy pad. Go on ebay and you'll find hundreds of brands of android tablets being sold. You can't ignore the facts.

[NHBill]

07:44 AM on 02/01/2011

Facts!
What facts?
ebay listings?
This story was reporting bogus wholesale numbers,
The company later said retail sales are quite small after being pressed by the financial reporters.
The only thing that has happened to Apple's market share to date could at best be classified as a few dents. (Archos? Come on. They are not the competition.)
It will go down this year.
But be sure to look at true retail sales reports and not anecdotal evidence or wholesales.
The evidence so far looks very similar to the iPod and not the Macintosh.
Considering the computing power of tablets this is a serious shift in consumer attitudes towards Apple.

[John Kramarz]

09:47 AM on 02/01/2011

A lot of the EBay listings are probably people selling them because they won't be able to run Honeycomb.
Imagine if Apple did that! Their iOS update always covered the last 2 generations or more, for free. So you might have gotten a Samsung Tab at Christmas, and within a few months, it's outdated (whenever Honeycomb is officially released.)
That's the kind of thing you have to expect when the OS and hardware are made by 2 different companies.
I remember that happened with DEC Alpha PCs. One day. Microsoft announced that they were dropping support for the product. Windows NT (maybe) was the last OS they supported for it. Not that I remember them supporting it so well in the first place.

[Attikai]

06:29 PM on 01/31/2011

If places like HuffPost didn't devote time and bandwidth everyday to write story after story about apple products how much do you think sales would decline? Any product Apple makes gets endless free press. It's some sort of twisted corporate worship complex.

[Gary James]

06:40 PM on 01/31/2011

Apple creates unique products that are backed up by a high quality platform. In tablets Android has no answer, the Galaxy Tab is the only device even worth bringing up and it's been a failure in sales (Samsung Executives say consumer sales have been "quite small").

[jt1980]

09:51 PM on 01/31/2011

Don't forget the Android-powered $250 Nook Color, a very focused and successfully marketed product.

[ProCynic]

06:47 PM on 01/31/2011

It's called "Apple Fanboygasm".

[moving violation]

06:21 PM on 01/31/2011

even if android sells 10 units it eats away at i pad when the ipad was the only product on the market

[ResearchtheFacts]

06:20 PM on 01/31/2011

Apple's market share was not sustainable.  Outside of being a novelty once people actually put their hands on it and worked with the fact it was odd shaped and heavy it lost its charm.  Particularly if you had other choices.  If you had no other choice than iPad was the greatest thing ever invented.  With choices it is a poorly designed tablet.  Too heavy, odd shaped with limited inputs. Along with limited storage capacity no way to get you (personalize) other than downloading crap on to it.  If you put too much you were quickly out of storage space for the cheaper models with no SD slots to expand storage capability.

[NHBill]

08:10 PM on 01/31/2011

highest customer satisfaction ratings ever for a consumer tech product.
(Google iPad customer satisfaction rating)
Might not be Your cup of tea but iPad owners love them.

[John Kramarz]

10:10 AM on 02/01/2011

"the fact it was odd shaped and heavy"

'fact'? or opinion?

"If you put too much you were quickly out of storage space for the cheaper models with no SD slots to expand storage capability"

You can get a 64 GB iPad, if that's really an issue. The Samsung? I read it's 16GB internal, and up to 32 external? 48GB

[ugs]

06:18 PM on 01/31/2011

"Android tablets eat away at iPad"

thats like saying "off brand potato chips out-sell Lays"

[D-V-H]

06:11 PM on 01/31/2011

Not surprising, considering the closed method in which Apple restricts applications.

With an Android device you get to decide what apps you get, not some corporate policy. Just like when IBM gave away its stranglehold on their computers and PCs became the de facto standard, we will likely see phenomenal growth in Android based tablets.

[jrb35]

06:13 PM on 01/31/2011

You do realize that there's a thing called an App Store on iTunes, right? You can choose whatever app you want for your device.

[jotunloki]

06:22 PM on 01/31/2011

Only if Apple approves the app.

[el dudearino]

06:19 PM on 01/31/2011

And grandma is going to die by death panels.

[helioszephyr]

06:05 PM on 01/31/2011

Well, again... hyperbole headlines. As someone mentioned earlier... sales increasing from 1 to 10 is a ten-fold increase, but still a low number. And units shipped by mfr. is not units sold... they could sit on retail shelves for a while.
Additionally, articles like this assume the iPad (or any other Apple product) will remain static when competitor products' launch is announced with promise of better specs... as if what, Apple will not improve specs/features in the next 6 months?

[ResearchtheFacts]

05:58 PM on 01/31/2011

We knew that would happen when  you add a couple of cameras and some actual ways to input instead of downloading crap.

[buddhistMonkey]

05:46 PM on 01/31/2011

From the article: ((( "The Samsung Galaxy tab was the main driver of Android sales, according to Strategy Analytics..." )))

Just today, Samsung finally admitted that sales of their Galaxy Tab to actual customers have been "quite small." The numbers that Samsung has been quoting for the past few months were units sold to distributors, not customers. This whole article is premised on the alleged popularity of the Galaxy Tab, which has now been exposed as a fraud:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/31/samsung-says-galaxy-tab-sales-to-consumers-actually-quite-small/#disqus_thread

[ResearchtheFacts]

06:15 PM on 01/31/2011

I can tell you why if there is any validity to it. The cell phone carriers here scaled down the features so much it became and over-priced item and another data plan. What's the point of having it if you can't make a call on it to?  So you have a device you can fit in your pocket but you better have your cellphone in your pocket too.  What a wasted opportunity.

[Onutz]

09:58 PM on 01/31/2011

LOL, thanks for posting that. And they say Apple fans are the ones that love being duped!

[MrDOB]

05:45 PM on 01/31/2011

Ha ha ha what a crock!

[Nomadius]

05:42 PM on 01/31/2011

No they are not narrowing anything. Apple enjoyed a whole year of selling tablets at outrageous prices with no competition. That will not be taken away by any of the new players. That opportunity is gone. Now Apple has another shot of sales bonanza just by launching a new version and having half of their followers upgrading. Most of these upgrade candidate will be Apple fans and won't switch brands.

[NHBill]

08:13 PM on 01/31/2011

delusional