Android tablets outshipped Apple's iPad for first time in Q2 2013, study claims

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
The tablet market continues to grow rapidly, and Apple's position in that market appears to be slipping, as shipments of tablets powered by Google's Android operating system overtook the iPad in the second quarter of this year.



According to market analysis firm Canalys, Apple still leads in overall tablet sales, moving 14.6 million units last quarter. That total amounts to 42.7 percent of the 34.2 million tablets shipped overall in the quarter, down significantly from the 71.2 percent share Apple held for the same quarter last year.

Meanwhile, Apple's chief rival Samsung shipped 7.37 million tablets, or 21.6 percent of worldwide shipments, several times more than it did for the same quarter last year. Amazon, which runs a forked version of Android on its Kindle Fire devices, came in third place with 4.5 percent of shipments, followed by Lenovo and Acer at 4.3 apiece.

The four largest Android and Android-derived vendors, then, account for just over one-third of the total tablet market. The remainder of the market is taken up by the 7.7 million tablets shipped by "Other" manufacturers, or 22.6 percent of the market.

While Apple lost share, the other manufacturers listed all saw their shares grow year-over-year. Canalys' study attributes this to the tablet market truly coming into its own.

"Tablets are now mainstream products and hardware innovation is increasingly difficult," said Canalys analyst James Wang. "With branded Android tablets available for less than $150, the PC market has never been so good for consumers, who are voting with their wallets."

Apple executives have long expressed the importance of the tablet in the company's plans going forward. CEO Tim Cook said earlier this year that the tablet represented "the mother of all markets" and that Apple would pursue it aggressively.

Cook has also cast doubt on whether buyers of non-Apple tablets are getting as much use out of their devices. With the latest figures showing the iPad holding 84 percent usage share according to some measures, it would appear that owners of other tablets are not using them as often as are iPad owners.

Still, even as Apple's share of shipments slips overall, Canalys' report predicts that the Cupertino company will retain a considerable lead in profitability. Apple will "remain [the tablet market's] most profitable vendor for years to come," according to the report. The increasing competition, though, could see Apple introducing a lower-cost iPad in the near future in order to stave rivals. Such a device has already been predicted by some observers, who say a low-cost iPad mini could debut some time next year.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 74
    "Others" is doing pretty well!

    But all those cheap $100 tablets probably aren't hurting Apple too much.
  • Reply 3 of 74
    thedba wrote: »

    Different analysts.

    This one is from Canalys... yesterday was Strategy Analytics.
  • Reply 4 of 74
    gqbgqb Posts: 1,934member
    Isn't this essentially the same data that DED slammed just a few days ago?
    http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/07/31/strategy-analytics-finds-millions-of-android-tablets-rewrites-ipad-history

    edit: looks like I wasn't the only one to ask this.
    So I'd think a DED follow-up would be in order.
  • Reply 5 of 74
    gqbgqb Posts: 1,934member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Michael Scrip View Post





    Different analysts.



    This one is from Canalys... yesterday was Strategy Analytics.


    The question is, does the DED critique apply to this as well, or does this add weight to the SA analysis?

  • Reply 6 of 74
    captain jcaptain j Posts: 313member
    The numbers seem to match the numbers claimed by Apple for Q2. That gives this a little more cred.
  • Reply 7 of 74
    genovellegenovelle Posts: 1,480member
    I grow weary of analysts who proclaim a flood of cheap anything is good for consumers. You get what you pay for. Garbage ends up in the garbage. Since I purchased my MacBook almost 4 years ago some of my windows friends have replaced their computers at least twice. I ended up having a problem with my video card crashing about 6 months ago and took it to the Apple store to be checked out, they replaced the motherboard free of charge. My 4 year old iPhone 3GS is still being used as a remote and running iOS 6. So I'm not forced to replace it ever 6 months to a year to get OS updates.
    Cheap tends to be far more expensive.
  • Reply 8 of 74
    just_mejust_me Posts: 590member

    Quote:


    DED debunks his own stories. You can tell who writes it from the title alone. They are always long opinion based fairy tales, I mean features.

  • Reply 9 of 74
    gqb wrote: »
    The question is, does the DED critique apply to this as well, or does this add weight to the SA analysis?

    I have no idea.

    I think all that these analysts do is provide a general feel for what's going on in the industry.

    None of these companies report actual shipments/sales/whatever... except Apple, right?

    So you should take anything these analysts say with a grain of salt.

    Hell... look how neatly each number ends with three zeros. They're just making guesses... albeit with some knowledge. But unless Amazon tells how many Kindle Fires they shipped... it's all a guessing game.
  • Reply 10 of 74
    genovellegenovelle Posts: 1,480member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Just_Me View Post


    DED debunks his own stories. You can tell who writes it from the title alone. They are always long opinion based fairy tales, I mean features.



    Oddly when you look back at the stories DED tends be right in the end. After the glory seeking pundits can no longer dodge the truth.  For instance the doom of the iPad was called every year since it was released.  Even last year they were being beat but when the smoke cleared and the mirrors were revealed it wasn't even close. 

  • Reply 11 of 74
    snovasnova Posts: 1,281member


    Samsung tablets are flying off the shelf, vs Goggle Nexus and Kindle?  almost 22% of all worldwide sales? That would be very surprising.


     


    EDIT: I see what they did there.  not flying OFF the shelf. flying ONTO the shelf.   These are shipments, not sales. 


     


    A lot like this chart last year from IDC which reported shipments. 


    https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS23772412

  • Reply 12 of 74
    gqbgqb Posts: 1,934member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Just_Me View Post


    DED debunks his own stories. You can tell who writes it from the title alone. They are always long opinion based fairy tales, I mean features.



    Right... one-liner, snarky, factless comments trump laboriously researched articles any day of the week.

  • Reply 13 of 74
    robin huberrobin huber Posts: 3,949member
    This just doesn't seem right. Where are they going? I never see them in real people's hands, only in commercials and sponsored reality TV shows. They've been dumping them through Costco, maybe that has goosed the numbers? Still, hard to believe.
  • Reply 14 of 74
    snova wrote: »
    Samsung tablets are flying off the shelf, vs Goggle Nexus and Kindle?  That would be very surprising.  

    It would appear so.

    Then again... Samsung never said how many they've shipped/sold... so where do analysts get this information? Surveys?
  • Reply 15 of 74
    mechanicmechanic Posts: 805member
    If you read DED iPad debunk of strategy analytics survey the best part is where the asshat from strategy analytics suddenly pulls out the idea of white-box tablets to beat the iPad in numbers but can't provide any real data to back it up. In other words he just made a guess and then printed it as fact.

    I would only rely on hard numbers but because apple is the only vendor who supplies them the analysts guess and make up fantasies numbers for android. No android vendor gives specific sales numbers. And very few give any shipped numbers which are meaningless, because they don't show sold as in end users buying them. Stuffing channel inventory does not make the device magically appear in a buying customers hands.
  • Reply 16 of 74


    Outshipped.


     


    Says it all (assuming it's even true).

  • Reply 17 of 74
    This just doesn't seem right. Where are they going? I never see them in real people's hands, only in commercials and sponsored reality TV shows. They've been dumping them through Costco, maybe that has goosed the numbers? Still, hard to believe.

    To a landfill in New Mexico, of course. Next to the E.T. cartridges.

    :D
  • Reply 18 of 74

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Captain J View Post



    The numbers seem to match the numbers claimed by Apple for Q2. That gives this a little more cred.


    LOL. Do you seriously think they didn't just copy and paste the number that Apple recently reported!? image


     


    As an aside -- assuming you'd like to actually know -- please look up data for how many iPads Apple sold in 2Q-2013. (Hint: It's a lot more than 14.7M.)

  • Reply 19 of 74
    icarbonicarbon Posts: 196member
    If the numbers match Apple's reported numbers, then this report is BS. Apple doesn't report units shipped. Apple reports units sold. As a result, comparing units shipped with units sold doesn't exactly give a very good view of what's really happening, does it?
  • Reply 20 of 74
    nelsonxnelsonx Posts: 278member

    Quote:


    Oh boy! I really, REALLY hope you don't decide your investments based on DED "debunks"!

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