Apple's iPad suffers drastic decline in share of Chinese tablet market while cheap competitors grow

24

Comments

  • Reply 21 of 63


    Apple never worries. Here comes the new iPad!

  • Reply 22 of 63
    There seems to be a never-ending concern about market share which I fail to see of having any value except on Wall Street. I wonder if even most consumers are happy getting cheap junk that should probably be outlawed due to waste of materials. The only good thing about it is I suppose it's giving people employment. Otherwise, what good is a cheap product if it's only going to end up as landfill in a few months.

    I'm sure market share isn't significant for Apple if a hundred companies are shipping low-end Android tablets. Is there any proof that consumers are even using these cheap tablets to any degree. I'm sure they must have some issues. Even cheap pocket calculators of years back had issues of problematic displays and unresponsive keys. I can only imagine the issues a $75 or $100 Android tablet could have. I don't see how Wall Street could be rejoicing over this sort of market share race. It's like they actually want consumers to own poorly made goods. That's not even good for poor consumers if a product has a high failure rate.

    The news media has the biggest hard-on for market share I have ever seen. I fail to see how any of it matters. Companies either make money or they don't. It doesn't matter how much market share they have. Nokia had major cellphone market share at one point and at the same time they were bleeding cash and headed towards insolvency. Why doesn't Wall Street understand any of this?
  • Reply 23 of 63

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by messele View Post



    "During the quarter, 46 percent of all tablet shipments to China came from vendors IDC classified as %u201Cothers%u201D, which individually claimed a market share of less than one percent. Many of these vendors included small white box device makers, as well as Amazon, which began selling its Kindle Fire tablet in China in June."



    In other words, China does what China does. Buy tank loads of cheap crap that is being palmed off as being "more or less" just like the expensive premium items.



    Then said items electrocute the user. The rest of the world feigns shock.


    There were articles actually blaming Apple because Apple-certified chargers were too expensive and it drove consumers to buy non-Apple chargers.  Apple always seems to be at fault for reasons that make very little sense.

  • Reply 24 of 63
    gctwnlgctwnl Posts: 278member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    The iPad's decline in China continues a recent trend for Apple as consumers around the world increasingly opt for Android tablets or Microsoft's Surface devices. An IDC report from early August showed Apple's worldwide shipments sliding by 14.1 percent year over year, while the company's worldwide tablet market share fell from 60.3 percent to 32.4 percent in the same period.


    Surface RT? Seriously?


     


    What does 'increasingly opt for' mean in the case of Surface RT? In this case, from less that 1% (actually from 0%) to 1%?


     


    All percentages including the category 'others' add up to 55%. Something is definitely very wrong here.

  • Reply 25 of 63
    solomansoloman Posts: 228member
    Cheap models grow ... as HP did in the past ... till bancrupsy.

    What's crupsy, and why did they ban it?
  • Reply 26 of 63
    solomansoloman Posts: 228member
    sog35 wrote: »
    This is SILLY BS.

    Do you think LOUIS VUITTON is concerned about Garbage Bag sales?

    Do you think BMW is worried about Kia sales?

    Of course LV is concerned. The quality of Chinese knockoffs has improved immensely. Many Italian bag makers use Chinese factories whenever they're overwhelmed with orders, then the Chinese use what they've learned to make almost indistinguishable copies.
  • Reply 27 of 63
    Time for a gold colored iPad?
  • Reply 28 of 63
    tzeshantzeshan Posts: 2,351member


    Apple made a serious mistake not putting the gps chip inside iPad wifi models.  After three years numerous tablet apps wants the location of the device. 

  • Reply 29 of 63
    freerangefreerange Posts: 1,597member
    They'd be worried if people buying Kia were those who would've bought BMW if Kia didn't exist. 

    In the end, yes, people who bought cheap tablets, some of them would've bought an iPad. iPad, especially with mini, is not as 'premium' as people here are thinking. At $329, a lot of people in China can buy 1 if they really want it, but if there's Android tablet selling for $99, well, even if it's crap, it can still be used to read books, play video, use facebook/email/web, etc, and people will just say 'ok it's bad but it's cheap enough so I don't have to save up to buy a $329 iPad mini. 

    If people in China didn't have a choice of a Kia they wouldn't buy a BMW if it were their only choice if they couldn't afford it - they'd stick to their bicycle, electric bike or the bus. (BTW - Facebook is blocked in China!) The fact of the matter is that the rapid expansion of the tablet market in these countries is happening at the low end, and is not part of Apple's addressable market. Therefore their unit market share is bound to decline, but their revenue and profit share will keep them well in the lead.
  • Reply 30 of 63
    I found the bit at the end about consumers are increasingly opting for Android annoying because its the standard low grade unsophisticated analysis you can read in the antiApple press and you'd think Appleinsider would get a bit deeper.

    Consumers are moving up from feature phones because feature phones are disappearing from shops around the world and Android POS cheap phones running 2 year old versions of Android are replacing them. And if you're poor, need a phone and don't really care about apps and browsing the web and buying from Amazon and such, you'll buy what the dude in the shop suggests to you and at those prices it won't be any flavour of iPhone. Everyone knows or should know if they work in the field of consumer tech reporting that the number of phones and tablets on a y/y basis that Apple is shipping is growing with seasonal q/q fluctuations. That these ultracheaps are being bought by the massive number of slightly upwardly mobile but still very poor peeps mentioned above does not suggest that Apple is losing anything, not revenues, not profits, not desirability of brand and as such the above wording is misleading.. Apple continue to make exuberant profits although their rate of growth has slowed as the market saturated. Apple remains a powerhouse in the market segments it competes in and Apple management would get hired in a minute by world class firms where they too leave which they choose not todo because they're bloody pleased to be working on changing the world.
  • Reply 31 of 63
    freerangefreerange Posts: 1,597member
    soloman wrote: »
    Of course LV is concerned. The quality of Chinese knockoffs has improved immensely. Many Italian bag makers use Chinese factories whenever they're overwhelmed with orders, then the Chinese use what they've learned to make almost indistinguishable copies.

    Actually it's not the case at all. Most urban Chinese consumers now want the real thing - in fact China is now the second largest luxury goods market in the world and will become the largest in the next few years if the current trend continues. For instance, woman making only a few hundred a month will save up just to buy a real LV bag. They want to be able to show it off. There has been a dramatic shift in China on this front. That is not to say that knockoffs don't exist, and aren't getting better in quality, but the reality is that now many of those are shipped overseas.
  • Reply 32 of 63
    solomansoloman Posts: 228member
    freerange wrote: »
    Actually it's not the case at all. Most urban Chinese consumers now want the real thing - in fact China is now the second largest luxury goods market in the world and will become the largest in the next few years if the current trend continues. For instance, woman making only a few hundred a month will save up just to buy a real LV bag. They want to be able to show it off. There has been a dramatic shift in China on this front. That is not to say that knockoffs don't exist, and aren't getting better in quality, but the reality is that now many of those are shipped overseas.

    I wasn't referring to the Chinese market. There's a huge market for quality made knockoffs in the USA.
  • Reply 33 of 63
    tzeshan wrote: »
    Apple made a serious mistake not putting the gps chip inside iPad wifi models.  After three years numerous tablet apps wants the location of the device. 

    This again.
  • Reply 34 of 63
    tundraboytundraboy Posts: 1,884member
    If I were TCook, I would be shocked, shocked I tell you, because there is no reason that Apple shouldn't exhibit the same market share numbers in China (per capita GDP $10,000) as they do in the US (per capita GDP $50,000).

    Now, did I get that double negative right and end up saying what I meant to say?
  • Reply 35 of 63
    murmanmurman Posts: 159member


    There are sub $100 7" tablets in China, they suck, at least the one I tried, forget about hi-dpi, or regular dpi, it was low dpi.

  • Reply 36 of 63
    tundraboytundraboy Posts: 1,884member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by All Day Breakfast View Post



    Apple continue to make exuberant profits although their rate of growth has slowed as the market saturated.


     


    You might have meant 'exhorbitant' but 'exuberant' actually works better!  :-)

  • Reply 37 of 63
    512ke512ke Posts: 782member
    If tablets are selling on low price in China, then why did the low-priced Kindle Fire not take more than 1% of the market?
  • Reply 38 of 63
    tzeshantzeshan Posts: 2,351member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by 512ke View Post



    If tablets are selling on low price in China, then why did the low-priced Kindle Fire not take more than 1% of the market?


    It is like what I said above.  The Kindle Fire lacks several key components to make it more useful. 

  • Reply 39 of 63
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member
    Apple creates a product category, and thus has 100% of it. If anyone sells even one unit in that category later on, that 100% has to drop. And they'll probably, all together, sell a lot more then that (several hundred, even). Falling market share is inevitable. Does it spell doom? Of course it does :)
  • Reply 40 of 63

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by 512ke View Post



    If tablets are selling on low price in China, then why did the low-priced Kindle Fire not take more than 1% of the market?


     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by tzeshan View Post


    It is like what I said above.  The Kindle Fire lacks several key components to make it more useful. 



    Indeed. One of the key components it lacks is actual presence. To be useful in a market and to take more than 1% of a market, a product has to be available for sale. Amazon only started Kindles in China about a month ago. The Kindle e-book store was only launched in China earlier this year.


     


    Sorry for the sarcasm but it seems to be lingua franca here. :)

Sign In or Register to comment.