Gartner ignores Apple's sales numbers, reports Android marketshare doubled iPad in 2013
Research firm Gartner on Monday announced tablet sales numbers for the full 2013 calendar year, finding Android to have grown a whopping 127 percent to wrest the top position from Apple for the first time ever.
According to Gartner's findings, end users bought nearly 121 million tablets running Google's Android operating system, which accounted for 61.9 percent of the market. Apple, on the other hand, reportedly dropped from a 52.8-percent share of the market to 36 percent on 70.4 million sales.
An impressive performance for Android that Gartner claims is thanks to growing popularity in the low-end smaller screen device sector. The firm's numbers, however, raise red flags regarding questionable methodology and reporting.
The most glaring inconsistency is a disconnect between Gartner's 70.4 million iPad sales and Apple's self-reported 74 million unit sales for 2013. From the first quarter -- Apple's second fiscal quarter -- to the fourth, the company reported iPad sales of 19.5 million, 14.6 million, 14.1 million and 26 million, respectively. The total: 74.2 million iPads sold during 2013.
Barring the fact that Apple's sales figures are regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Gartner's results are not off by a trivial amount, but a huge 3.8 million units. Thought of in another way, the discrepancy, if applied to No. 3 Microsoft's sales, would almost completely wipe out the Surface maker's performance for 2013.
Further confusing the issue is Gartner's use of the term "sales." Apple is the only major company to report sales to end users, while Android device makers like Samsung note only shipments. Gartner saw Samsung's tablet business grow 336 percent year-over-year, a feat chalked up to expanded product offerings and intense marketing.
"In line with its smartphone approach, Samsung's oversegmentation of its tablet portfolio helped it to offer a wider size and price choice but also helped it to test the market and find niches," Gartner's report reads.
In its vendor breakdown, seen above, Gartner once again includes the "Other" category dominated by so-called "white box," or unbranded devices. Compared to last year's 30.1 million sales, "Other" manufacturers racked up 60.7 million unit sales in 2013. To offer some perspective, the number is larger than the recorded sales for the list's second, third and fourth place OEMs combined.
"In 2013, tablets became a mainstream phenomenon, with a vast choice of Android-based tablets being within the budget of mainstream consumers while still offering adequate specifications," said Gartner research director Roberta Cozza. "As the Android tablet market becomes highly commoditized, in 2014, it will be critical for vendors to focus on device experience and meaningful technology and ecosystem value -- beyond just hardware and cost -- to ensure brand loyalty and improved margins."
According to Gartner's findings, end users bought nearly 121 million tablets running Google's Android operating system, which accounted for 61.9 percent of the market. Apple, on the other hand, reportedly dropped from a 52.8-percent share of the market to 36 percent on 70.4 million sales.
An impressive performance for Android that Gartner claims is thanks to growing popularity in the low-end smaller screen device sector. The firm's numbers, however, raise red flags regarding questionable methodology and reporting.
The most glaring inconsistency is a disconnect between Gartner's 70.4 million iPad sales and Apple's self-reported 74 million unit sales for 2013. From the first quarter -- Apple's second fiscal quarter -- to the fourth, the company reported iPad sales of 19.5 million, 14.6 million, 14.1 million and 26 million, respectively. The total: 74.2 million iPads sold during 2013.
Barring the fact that Apple's sales figures are regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Gartner's results are not off by a trivial amount, but a huge 3.8 million units. Thought of in another way, the discrepancy, if applied to No. 3 Microsoft's sales, would almost completely wipe out the Surface maker's performance for 2013.
Further confusing the issue is Gartner's use of the term "sales." Apple is the only major company to report sales to end users, while Android device makers like Samsung note only shipments. Gartner saw Samsung's tablet business grow 336 percent year-over-year, a feat chalked up to expanded product offerings and intense marketing.
"In line with its smartphone approach, Samsung's oversegmentation of its tablet portfolio helped it to offer a wider size and price choice but also helped it to test the market and find niches," Gartner's report reads.
In its vendor breakdown, seen above, Gartner once again includes the "Other" category dominated by so-called "white box," or unbranded devices. Compared to last year's 30.1 million sales, "Other" manufacturers racked up 60.7 million unit sales in 2013. To offer some perspective, the number is larger than the recorded sales for the list's second, third and fourth place OEMs combined.
"In 2013, tablets became a mainstream phenomenon, with a vast choice of Android-based tablets being within the budget of mainstream consumers while still offering adequate specifications," said Gartner research director Roberta Cozza. "As the Android tablet market becomes highly commoditized, in 2014, it will be critical for vendors to focus on device experience and meaningful technology and ecosystem value -- beyond just hardware and cost -- to ensure brand loyalty and improved margins."
Comments
Grabs popcorn and sits back.....
More "hacks for hire".
I dunno. I could very well be living a very sheltered existence where I am, but, I've only ever seen iPads and Kindles (the original and Paperwhite - not the Fire versions.) I've never seen an Android tablet "in the wild" - i.e., not for sale on a shelf, but actually being used by someone. Same for a Surface - I've seen one for sale in Staples, but have never seen one that has been purchased.
Yeah, it's not right to extrapolate my personal observations to the rest of the market; I just find it odd that I haven't seen anyone using one of the kabillions of Android tablets that're supposed to be running around out there.
What is happening is any product which needs some sort of OS to operate, is using bastardized version of Android on it,.Anyone can download Android hack it up to do what you need pay no licensing fee and load it on your product. They google gets to count it as shipped OS.
if you were some company trying to see your garbage into the market, and you could pay for an OS or get one for free which would you do.
The problem is all these Data companies are counting numbers, but as i pointed out before, what is behind those numbers, where did they come from. The simple fact they have apples actually numbers wrong should tell you something.
I dunno. I could very well be living a very sheltered existence where I am, but, I've only ever seen iPads and Kindles (the original and Paperwhite - not the Fire versions.) I've never seen an Android tablet "in the wild" - i.e., not for sale on a shelf, but actually being used by someone. Same for a Surface - I've seen one for sale in Staples, but have never seen one that has been purchased.
Yeah, it's not right to extrapolate my personal observations to the rest of the market; I just find it odd that I haven't seen anyone using one of the kabillions of Android tablets that're supposed to be running around out there.
Yes, we call this "confirmation bias."
I love this comment
Companies who sell Android hardware do not worry about margin or brand loyalty by definition, it about dumping as much crap on the market as you can at the lowest possible cost.
I pity the fools who buy the tripe that firms like Gartner put out.
Yes, we call this "confirmation bias."
I don't think you know what 'confirmation bias' -- or cause and effect -- means.
/s
Grabs popcorn and sits back.....
So some $50 POS Android tablet means Apple is doomed? Take your popcorn and... well, you know.
Honestly, I no longer give a crap about their reports simply because I don't know where these proud owners of samsung / google garbage are! What part of universe these transactions take place anyways?!!
Seriously guys... In a year the iPad's share will be bellow 15%, and the iPhone will be bellow 10%.
That's obvious, that's impossible to avoid and guess what... That's irrelevant too.
I know that more than half of those are sub-200€ devices, just like phones. Devs know it too. Google knows it also.
It's Apple's strategy and it won't change. Because of that, the best and more demanding Apps will always be iOS first or iOS too, unless Apple screws big time during a few couple of years.
What Apple should be worried is that we are starting to see capable jelly bean devices for that price that are perfectly capable or the ocasional flappy bird and Facebook/instagram/yadda yadda and people really love big screens.
So... Can we please stop with useless articles like these, useless posts from the usual suspects (I never saw an Android tablet! how do they do how many sales? Google only wants your data!yadda yadda)?
Get over it. Google is awesome. Android is awesome. Apple is just the best. Most of those sales are all trashy devices, as in every category (phones,tablets,cars,bikes,tvs, fridges, toilets, houses, etc.).
A couple years ago, a co-worker approached me to troubleshoot his "iPad". It would not connect to our WiFi network. Well, in under a second, I realized it was not an iPad, but a bonafide $50 chinese knock-off tablet. Exact same design, except all in plastic, and the "touch" display was more akin to a palm-pilot capacitive display that was horrible to look at, and required serious finger-pressure (not "touch") in order to register any events on the screen.
I spent probably 20 minutes with it (and him) trying to troubleshoot the connection problem. He blamed the WiFi network. At that point, I took out my Macbook... WiFi connected immediately. I took out my iPhone... connected immediately. I took out my iPad... connected immediately.
His demeanor changed after that. After lecturing him about the value of products, I asked why he didn't at least get a Samsung tablet which (arguably) is cheaper than an iPad? His response? It was too expensive, and he was led to believe his $50 piece-of-shit was just as good as an iPad. This guy works on avionics systems for private aircraft. So I was rather dumbfounded by his lack of intelligence in this area.
A couple minutes later, I gave up. The quality of the hardware was so bad, as far as I'm concerned he got a lemon. The WiFi card was probably defective, dunno as the time wasted in figuring out his cheapshit Android tablet ended up costing more in my time. I told him "You get what you pay for" and left it as that.
Even better, he tried contacting the seller of that tablet... in China, and they essentially gave him the phone-version of the middle-finger. He sent the unit back for a refund and never got his money back.
A fool and his money departed.
This is where the bulk of Android "sales" are coming from. I never see anyone at the Samsung Kiosks at Best Buy and Costco buying those things. It's always a ghost-town in that area. It's the $50 knockoff-crap the Chinese factories are peddling.
Damn shame. And it's this market that the analysts think Apple should compete in? Hell no! I'm glad Apple is staying out of that market.