HP leads all 1.2M non-Apple tablets sold in US in 2011

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
The NPD Group on Tuesday offered a picture of how tablets that are not Apple's iPad are faring in the market in the U.S., revealing that Hewlett-Packard's $99 fire sale of the failed TouchPad gave it the largest unit share so far in 2011.



HP was the top non-Apple tablet brand for retail sales between January and October of 2011, taking a 17 percent share, according to NPD. That narrowly bested Samsung, which came in second place with 16 percent.



In third was Asus, earning a 10 percent share of the U.S. market, while Motorola and Acer each followed with 9 percent. Research in Motion, which makes the struggling PlayBook, didn't crack the top five.



The fact that total U.S. tablet sales could only muster 1.2 million total units in a ten-month span shows the disparity between the iPad and everyone else. For example, in the last quarter alone, Apple reported worldwide sales of 11.2 million iPads, though a regional breakdown of the three-month period was not provided.



Still, NPD said that tablet hardware sales for non-Apple vendors accelerated throughout 2011, with each quarter performing better than the last. Third-quarter sales were said to be twice as strong as the second quarter of 2011, while second-quarter sales were three times better than the first three months of the year.



"If you look at the tablet market without Apple there are a number of high-profile brands vying for that number two spot,? said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD. "According to NPD?s Consumer Tracking Service, 76 percent of consumers who purchased a non-Apple tablet didn?t even consider the iPad, an indication that a large group of consumers are looking for alternatives, and an opportunity for the rest of the market to grow their business."



The numbers show that the U.S. tablet market outside of Apple is dominated by companies that build Windows-based PCs. One report from last week claimed that major PC makers, including HP, Acer and Asus, plan to gradually exit the tablet market in 2012, conceding it to companies that can provide content like Apple, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.







Though the NPD's report doesn't detail specific hardware models, HP's lead in the tablet market was no doubt made possible because of the company's discontinuation and subsequent $99 clearance of its TouchPad beginning in August. HP's decision to ax the webOS-powered TouchPad came only a few months after the hardware hit the market and was met with sluggish sales, forcing the company to take a $100 million charge for unsold inventory at resellers like Best Buy.



In all, non-iPad U.S. tablet sales are said to have brought in $415 million at retail in 2011. When accessories are thrown into the mix, total retail revenue was said to be nearly $700 million.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 141
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    LOL So Apple competitors can move product so long as they sell it for 1/4th the cost to manufacture?
  • Reply 2 of 141
    I am still unsure of why people even bought them at $99. I've never seen one and never will cause they didn't even get to where I am but regardless of if it has any value it harks back to the 80's where you bought an empty vessel with a flashing cursor. At least back then though you could learn how to program it and make it do stuff.



    Would someone really spend $99 on a web browser and email client that will never get patched or updated? Geez people bawked at having to pay Netscape for a browser.
  • Reply 3 of 141
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,712member
    I assume this article is deliberately written as humor.
  • Reply 4 of 141
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,712member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cy_starkman View Post


    I am still unsure of why people even bought them at $99. I've never seen one and never will cause they didn't even get to where I am but regardless of if it has any value it harks back to the 80's where you bought an empty vessel with a flashing cursor. At least back then though you could learn howBb to program it and make it do stuff.



    Would someone really spend $99 on a web browser and email client that will never get patched or updated? Geez people bawked at having to pay Netscape for a browser.









    I agree, that $99 would be better spent on an AppleTV
  • Reply 5 of 141
    auxioauxio Posts: 2,714member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    LOL So Apple competitors can move product so long as they sell it for 1/4th the cost to manufacture?



    All it proves is that there's a market for low cost (low end) tablets. However, until component costs come wayyy down and reference designs are available (very little R&D is required), only companies like Amazon who can sell hardware at a loss (offset with an alternate revenue model) will be able to tap into that market.
  • Reply 6 of 141
    geekdadgeekdad Posts: 1,131member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    LOL So Apple competitors can move product so long as they sell it for 1/4th the cost to manufacture?



    Yep....you would be surprised how much product you can move if you give it away.......
  • Reply 7 of 141
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cy_starkman View Post


    I am still unsure of why people even bought them at $99. I've never seen one and never will cause they didn't even get to where I am but ....



    Collector item for future generations !
  • Reply 8 of 141
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post


    I assume this article is deliberately written as humor.



    It reads like it's kicking HP when they're down. Wired had a good article yesterday on what WebOS has cost the company.
  • Reply 9 of 141
    auxioauxio Posts: 2,714member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post


    I agree, that $99 would be beer spent on an AppleTV



    Or even better spent on beer (good beer, of course).
  • Reply 10 of 141
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by auxio View Post


    All it proves is that there's a market for low cost (low end) tablets. However, until component costs come wayyy down and reference designs are available (very little R&D is required), only companies like Amazon who can sell hardware at a loss (offset with an alternate revenue model) will be able to tap into that market.



    Sure! I bet there would be even more demand at $49 per unit. The problem is it just isn't feasible and there is no technical path that will make it feasible in the foreseeable future. Even Amazon with their loss-leader Kindle Fire is still 2x the price of the HP Touchpad yet is 1/2 the display area, and pretty much 1/2 of other components, if it even has a counterpart.
  • Reply 11 of 141
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post


    I agree, that $99 would be better spent on an AppleTV



    Agreed, Digi...if one has an iPhone taking lots of photos and has a flat screen tv...they should have an ATV!



    Is it a complete set top box solution? No. But just streaming photos with some easy listening Internet music in the background is worth the price of admission.



    Best.
  • Reply 12 of 141
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,712member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    It reads like it's kicking HP when they're down. Wired had a good article yesterday on what WebOS has cost the company.



    Wow!



    I wonder if they had continued on with it would the losses have been greater or did they have any chance at all. They pulled back from the PC exit I wonder if they gave any thought to pulling back on dropping this? One for the history books for sure.
  • Reply 13 of 141
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,712member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by christopher126 View Post


    Agreed, Digi...if one has an iPhone taking lots of photos and has a flat screen tv...they should have an ATV!



    Is it a complete set top box solution? No. But just streaming photos with some easy listening Internet music in the background is worth the price of admission.



    Best.



    We cancelled our FIOS tv just keeping the Internet. ATV Plus large HD TV and Netflix and iTunes provide all we need. This with the added advantage of no news.
  • Reply 14 of 141
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cy_starkman View Post


    I am still unsure of why people even bought them at $99. I've never seen one and never will cause they didn't even get to where I am but regardless of if it has any value it harks back to the 80's where you bought an empty vessel with a flashing cursor. At least back then though you could learn how to program it and make it do stuff.



    Probably that's exactly what people bought these TouchPads for, to slap Android on it and muck around with it. I'm not sure what the current state of Android is on TouchPad hardware, but assuming you would get it to somewhat work, you'd have a pretty decent tablet and a fun environment to dick around with, for an extremely low price. The TouchPad hardware isn't all that bad (much better than a Nook Color for example, which is pretty popular as an Android hacking platform).
  • Reply 15 of 141
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post


    This with the added advantage of no news.



    Seems risky to not have FOX News telling you which liberal you need to be extra afraid of today.





    PS: Does the AppleTV pick up Photosteam and you subscribe to other user's Photostream with guest credentials? It might be nice for someone to see photos taken from the iPhone at some remote location on their AppleTV almost instantly. I can see consumer and business needs for this time of instant push of photos (and videos).





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by d-range View Post


    Probably that's exactly what people bought these TouchPads for, to slap Android on it and muck around with it. I'm not sure what the current state of Android is on TouchPad hardware, but assuming you would get it to somewhat work, you'd have a pretty decent tablet and a fun environment to dick around with, for an extremely low price. The TouchPad hardware isn't all that bad (much better than a Nook Color for example, which is pretty popular as an Android hacking platform).



    That's a popular enough geek mod, but I wonder how prevalent it is among TouchPad owners.
    The TouchPad fire sale and the Kindle Fire look to be great for iPad overall sales and bad for Android tablet vendors, or anyone else trying to carve a niche out of the market.
  • Reply 16 of 141
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by christopher126 View Post


    Agreed, Digi...if one has an iPhone taking lots of photos and has a flat screen tv...they should have an ATV!



    Is it a complete set top box solution? No. But just streaming photos with some easy listening Internet music in the background is worth the price of admission.



    Best.



    ATV is great. I spent a couple weeks last Christmas ripping/encoding DVDs into an ATV friendly format. We now have something like 300 movies instantly accessible from any of the three ATVs in the house. Add in the 4,000 or so songs in my library, photos, netflix, and all of the other stuff on it, it's a no-brainer at $99.
  • Reply 17 of 141
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cy_starkman View Post


    I am still unsure of why people even bought them at $99. I've never seen one and never will cause they didn't even get to where I am but regardless of if it has any value it harks back to the 80's where you bought an empty vessel with a flashing cursor. At least back then though you could learn how to program it and make it do stuff.



    Would someone really spend $99 on a web browser and email client that will never get patched or updated? Geez people bawked at having to pay Netscape for a browser.



    Let's see. You've never seen one, so you've obviously used one, but that doesn't stop you from criticizing people who might make a different choice than you. Nothing like egotistical people who want to enforce their own criteria on others.



    I bought one for my daughter. It's fantastic for her to watch movies while we travel and email and Facebook her friends. For the price, it was a bargain.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    The NPD Group on Tuesday offered a picture of how tablets that are not Apple's iPad are faring in the market in the U.S., revealing that Hewlett-Packard's $99 fire sale of the failed TouchPad gave it the largest unit share so far in 2011.



    HP was the top non-Apple tablet brand for retail sales between January and October of 2011, taking a 17 percent share, according to NPD. That narrowly bested Samsung, which came in second place with 16 percent.



    There's the problem with this number. While no one knows the real numbers, rumor had it that HP shipped 250-300,000 to BestBuy alone and most of them were returned and then sold at fire sale. Plus, HP made an additional run of units after the first batch were sold out on sale. Based on a hundred rumors which may or may not have any validity, I'm guessing that HP shipped something like 500-700,000 units, but these numbers would not have been captured because they didn't go through retail channels. Similarly, any other vendors who sold direct would not have been captured.



    Plus, of course, it's interesting that they include Kindle and Nook and other eReader sales when trying to make Apple look bad ("Look at how many Kindles were sold!!!"), but leave them out when it makes better click-bait headlines.



    Overall, it looks to me like they've only captured about 1/2 of the 'real' tablet sales and there were many millions of dedicated eReaders sold, as well - if you choose to consider them as tablets.
  • Reply 18 of 141
    auxioauxio Posts: 2,714member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    Sure! I bet there would be even more demand at $49 per unit. The problem is it just isn't feasible and there is no technical path that will make it feasible in the foreseeable future. Even Amazon with their loss-leader Kindle Fire is still 2x the price of the HP Touchpad yet is 1/2 the display area, and pretty much 1/2 of other components, if it even has a counterpart.



    Well, that's what everyone thought about the PC back in the early 1980s. No one could have imagined what you can get nowadays for less than $500. As component prices come down and less engineering is required to create a tablet, the costs will come down. I'd be willing to bet that in 5 years, there will be a number of tablets around the $100 mark. Not as functional or as easy to use as the iPad, but good enough for the low end market.
  • Reply 19 of 141
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by d-range View Post


    Probably that's exactly what people bought these TouchPads for, to slap Android on it and muck around with it. I'm not sure what the current state of Android is on TouchPad hardware, but assuming you would get it to somewhat work, you'd have a pretty decent tablet and a fun environment to dick around with, for an extremely low price. The TouchPad hardware isn't all that bad (much better than a Nook Color for example, which is pretty popular as an Android hacking platform).



    That's silly. The TouchPad is a very useful tablet and does a lot of things. The only major limitation is lack of apps - so why would you cripple it further by hacking it to run an OS where you can't even be sure if ANY of the apps will work?
  • Reply 20 of 141
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post


    We cancelled our FIOS tv just keeping the Internet. ATV Plus plarge HD TV and Netflix and iTunes provide all we need. This with the added advantage of no news.



    very similar to what I've done too....canceled my cable TV...I feel tv should be free if there are commercials or paid a la HBO and no commercials. But not both, $60/mo AND commercials!



    Yes, Netflix is one of the great bargains on the internets! I use redbox to watch the occasional relatively new release. Went to the movies to watch "Senna" the guy sitting next me pulled out a cheeseburger, fries and a coke! Sheesh! I left, with a promise to myself not to ever go back!



    Can't stand hula, again, too many commercials.



    As far as news! I read time, foreign affairs, the local daily paper, USA today , and the weekend editions of the FT, and WSJ...mainly for reviews of books movies and travel suggestions...



    Oh and just so the post is on topic...I wouldn't buy an HP tablet...



    Best!
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