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Tablet sales slump in Q1

by Scott Bicheno on 11 July 2011, 11:52

Tags: Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), IDC

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Just a blip?

Market researcher IDC has revealed that the global number of tablets shipped into sales channels in Q1 was 7.2 million. This was below expectations and 28 percent down on the previous quarter.

IDC doesn't think this is indicative of a general cooling of demand for tablets, noting sequential decline in Q1 is a seasonal norm, and that the PC market also struggled in Q1 due to macroeconomic concerns. In fact IDC is more bullish on tablets than ever, raising its shipments projection for the whole of this year from 50.4 to 53.5 million units.

"Like the PC market, Media Tablets had a bit of a challenging quarter in Q1, as concerns about general macroeconomic issues and the post-holiday letdown took a toll on demand," said Bob O'Donnell, IDC VP of clients and displays. "We expect the rest of the year to be much stronger, but we believe vendors who continue to focus on the telco channel for distribution will face serious challenges."

That last bit is consistent with general observations that people are largely buying Wi-Fi tablets, preferring not to shell-out the extra £100 for an overpriced 3G chip, let alone commit to yet another lengthy mobile phone contract.

While the report says Apple continues to dominate the tablet market, it also notes that Android's market share grew 8.2 percentage points to 34 percent. Another analyst, however, was reported by All Things D as observing that even Android smartphone users are more likely to buy an iPad than an Android tablet, and predicted Apple dominance of the tablet market for at least another couple of years.

 



HEXUS Forums :: 3 Comments

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That last bit is consistent with general observations that people are largely buying Wi-Fi tablets, preferring not to shell-out the extra £100 for an overpriced 3G chip, let alone commit to yet another lengthy mobile phone contract.
Yep, that £100 can make the difference between “just affordable” and “too expensive”. Plus, you can always tether your tablet to your phone (well at least I can)
Android smartphone users are more likely to buy an iPad than an Android tablet, and predicted Apple dominance of the tablet market for at least another couple of years.
Both true I think - in fact unless HP or Google deliver some stupendous update for their existing tablets I really can't see Apple losing the #1 slot anytime soon, even though they may have a technically inferior product. They just have too much mindshare (and advertising space).

Oh, and here's one Android owner who stayed “loyal” to the platform (got a new EEE Transformer at the weekend - being the best device for what I wanted to do). So far it's been not bad (couple of unexplained browser crashes being the only really nuisance) but I'd really Google do something to allow Market Place to recognise that people may actually have more than one device registered to the same Google account.
I recently was given a Blackberry playbook. Unless you use a blackberry its almost no use getting it unless you use wifi.

The apps for it are almost non existant. I want a decent ebook reader all it has it kobo, you can't use live messenger.

As I said if you use wifi the browsing is brilliant on that full stop. If you get a tablet only go for the android or apple market
Kovoet
I recently was given a Blackberry playbook. Unless you use a blackberry its almost no use getting it unless you use wifi.
The apps for it are almost non existant. I want a decent ebook reader all it has it kobo, you can't use live messenger.
As I said if you use wifi the browsing is brilliant on that full stop. If you get a tablet only go for the android or apple market
According to http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1475238&highlight= there was suppose to be a Kindle app coming “real soon” - I wonder what happened to it?

Also don't forget that some of the cheap Android tablets don't have any app store access (used the generic term because I'm not just talking about Google Market Place), so putting stuff on them could be problematic, certainly won't be simple.

I had a look at the Playbook, but I've already got a 7“ tablet (the HP Zeen that came as part of my Photosmart eStation all-in-one) and I managed to crash it within about 2 minutes - not a good recommendation.

At the risk of ”batting for the home team" it would appear that HP are putting a real push on getting developers to WebOS, so maybe that'll be a real contender in future. Even though I suspect that there'll never be the quantity of apps available to match Android, never mind iOS.