The iPad might be the king of tablets when it comes to quality, but it is no longer the king when it comes to sales.
A new report from research firm Strategy Analytics says that the iPad is now being outsold by so-called Brand X tablets: generic tablets sold under any brand name that isn’t Apple or Samsung.
According to Strategy Analytics, Brand X tablets sold 70 million devices in 2014. That’s 57% of all tablets, compared to Apple tablets (26%) and Samsung tablets (17%).
So who are all these anonymous tablet makers? Amazon’s Kindle is probably a big one, but the biggest suppliers of Brand X tablets are no-name companies either offering tablets at dirt cheap prices as subsidies through carriers, or by selling them in the emerging market.
“It’s pretty easy to find the deals: Get a data plan and a tablet for free,” said Eric Smith, a senior analyst at Strategy Analytics.
Apple probably isn’t troubled by the fact that most people buy non-iPads: it’s always sought out the best profit margins, not the biggest slice of the market share pie. But it’s still true that iPads aren’t selling the way they used to, with most customers opting to upgrade their iPads more like their MacBooks: every four to five years, as opposed to every two years like they might do with an iPhone.
As for what people do with Brand X tablets? Not much, it looks like. Talking to other analyst firms, Recode says this about Brand X tablets:
“You’re seeing them show up in different places, but the usage is fundamentally different from the more capable tablets like Apple’s iPad and the Samsung Galaxy.”
Although consumers may purchase an inexpensive tablet from eFun or Asus, or receive an Ellipsis free with a two-year Verizon Wireless contract, these devices may be gathering dust. Chitika Insights released a report in January showing that Apple’s iPads account for 70 percent of tablet Web traffic in North America, based on its analysis of online ad impressions.
Sounds like some pretty crappy tablets, don’t you think? I’m glad I have an iPad.
Source: Recode
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
13 responses to “‘Brand X’ tablets are beating the iPad”
These were on *shipping* units, and since sales of the iPad have been declining, it seems hardly surprising unless the goal was a variation of “Apple losing!” something and someone needing to panic over…something.
I’m a long time Apple user and iPad 1 owner. The truth is that after watching my usage patterns I’d be very hard-pressed to buy a new iPad at its price ranges (or any premium nodel from Samsung and the like) when any cheap Android tablet with a decent quality screen would suffice for web browsing, eReading and such. I suspect that the slow iPad replacement cycle has a lot to do with that.
I had an iPad 1, now have an iPad Air 2.
Don’t fool yourself by moving to a junkPad.
My Air 2 is fantastic and extremely fast.
This is like saying
A new report from research firm blahblahblah says that Volkswagens are now being outsold by so-called Brand X cars: generic cars sold under any brand name that isn’t Volkswagen or Toyota
Admittedly other manufacturers dont sell on the level of the two big boys but to discount microsoft kindle Asus and kobo to name a few is ridiculous.
I understand the fact that you say that the majority of brand x tablets are no-name companies but when they’re giving them for free its hardly a fair comparison, im sure apple would be on top if they gave theirs away too.
Take the giveaways other main established brands out of the equation and im sure the picture would be different. This articles data should be based on peoples paying choices and all major companies should be represented.
The only real statement would be that android tablets outsell ios devices!
Nobody is giving them away free, they’re subsidised by the network provider when you take out a data plan in exactly the same way that the iPhone is subsidised by the networks. The truth is that you can buy a better tablet at a lower price than the iPad mini. Apple has been behind the curve right from the start with the iPad mini and it’s coming back to bite them in the ass now. They should have launched the iPad Pro last year while there wasn’t much competition but come this autumn when they do finally launch it they’ll probably be up against a whole bunch of cheaper 12″ tablets vying for our money. I also think it was crazy to move the iPad upgrade cycle from April to Novemebr. So soon after the annual iPhone update the iPad update just gets lost in the whole iPhone hoopla. I love my iPad Air 2 but it’s not enough on its own. Apple has nobody but themselves to blame for the iPad’s decline.
I agree with everything what you say Shaun, but a subsidised cheap tablet is essentially free to the carrier when compared to the price of a subsidised ipad, this of course will reflect in the price plan and will obviously hugely affect sales. How often do you see a cheap phone bundled with a ‘free’ generic tablet? the monthly cost is usually sub £20 you never see this price point with a ‘free’ ipad. My point was that this report is garbage, you cant really draw comparisons between the products compared, its like saying people tend to have more lumps of S:*t in there houses than lumps of gold, they’re both lumps of stuff but one you have to buy and the other is a bonus from something else you have bought.
Stoker has essentially said it far better than me :D
This article is non-sense. Saying one specific brand being “outsold” by an aggregate of every other brand on the market (minus one other major player) is some significant trend, just illustrates how incredibly dominant that brand must be.
I bought a “Brand X” tablet (HP)as a fill-in fir my dead notebook until the Braswell MacBoojs finally show up. It’s a Win 8, and works pretty good. To be honest, if Win 10 cones out before the next MacBook, I may have to think about bothering with the new MacBook.
I’m glad I have an Asus EEE 1005HA Netbook, onto which I have a perfectly functioning copy of Mac OS 10.6.7. Does everything I need and doesn’t fall over or need a stand or a keyboard or a… zzz
Left out of the article is the fact the iPad makes Apple some wildly high amount of the profit in the tablet market just as the iPhone reportedly makes 95% of the profit in the smart phone segment. I would rather have a product that made 95% of the profit in a category than one that sold more.
IMO Apple really needs to advance the iPad software and drop the prices. $499 for a 16 GB Wi-Fi model (same price as 2010) is a much too large premium.
Everyone who wanted a tablet has one. While it still has its niche uses, the novelty has worn off, the software has stagnated, and large phones have encroached on its territory. The Apple Watch is obviously a different device, but I think when it comes time to choosing money for a third device (after the vital computer and smartphone), the tablet will lose out. Laptop, large phone, and smartwatch covers 99% of use cases.
Today’s iPad is orders of magnitude better than the iPad of 2010.
Worth every penny to me.
I have an iPad Air2 and it’s a screamer.
These tablets are like non name PC’s used at Jiffy lube. they serve one purpose and one purpose only. They are only connected to a company intranet for updates – Target seems to have replaced their wedding gift PC’s with no name tablets. So, it’s a business but does BMW worry when you buy a white cargo van? No. Neither does apple.