The only real rival Apple has in tablet sales is itself, one analyst said Tuesday. Despite the claims, competitors “have made an imperceptible dent in the trajectory of iPad sales.”
“They’ve been unable to undercut the price of the iPad; and they’ve fallen woefully short in matching its features, ease-of-use and the number of applications written for the device,” analyst Charlie Wolf of Needham & Co. told investors. “Indeed, the only risk in our forecast is on the supply, not the demand side.”
Little wonder, then, that Wolf upped his iPad sales estimate for the third quarter to 9 million units, an increase from 7.5 million. The increased confidence comes from Apple’s unchallenged dominance of the tablet sector, reports indicate. The analyst estimates Apple shipped 7 million iPads this month and believes 25 million iPads have shipped to date.
The only shadow over an otherwise glowing forecast for Apple is minor: Wolf reduced his forecast for iPhone shipments in the fourth quarter to 16 million, down from 17.5 million. But the cut is only due to what the analyst sees as a natural slowing of iPhone 4 sales ahead of the expected introduction of the iPhone 5.
Elsewhere, Wolf foresees a third quarter jump in Mac sales to 4.25 million units, up from 3.75 million. Additionally, he projects $25.4 billion third quarter in third quarter revenue, up from the previously predicted $23.5 billion. For all of 2011, Apple will earn $103.6 billion, just a nudge higher from the analyst’s previously expected $101.1 billion.
For 2012, Wolf expects Apple will rake in $130 billion.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
14 responses to “Rivals Make ‘Imperceptible Dent’ in iPad Juggernaut”
“They’ve been unable to undercut the price of the iPad”
Wait. Isn’t there several tablets that undercut the price of the iPad? Asus Eee Pad Transformer and Acer’s Iconca tablets are cheaper than the iPad. And the Toshiba tablet, which is coming out soon, will be cheaper than the iPad.
Just a thought, do we think that apps on a tablet are deemed more important than apps on a phone? Is this the thing that’s keeping the iPad in front at the moment?
Looking at the phone, Apple has a much more mature offering but the market has definitely moved over to Android as the choice of the punters. Regardless of the apps, Android is now really taking off, no two ways about it. BUT the tablet offering is just not getting anyone excited. Can’t be price because all tablets (worth buying) are all around the same-ish price points. Can’t be specs because in the real world they all perform in a similar fashion and do similar things (excepting the flash stance on the iPad).
I think the iPad is really pushing the iPadness of it’s apps and that’s the thing (as well as HUGE marketing and iPhone owner sales) that’s making it a solid performer. I watch the TV ads and the iPad is selling a strong platform message but the other tablets just don’t seem to know what to say about their products.
I went into an Orange shop over the weekend. They had a Samsung something next to an iPad 2 – nobody was looking at the Samsung tablet at all. Saying that this can’t continue, I don’t doubt that there will be a noticeable shift in the market once Amazon comes out fighting.
Apple haters always claim that it’s “slick marketing” that drives sales of the iOS devices but the genius of their ads is that they show a consumer the reality of what they can do with their products.
Example: I was watching a commercial for the new Samsung Tab and it featured some guy riding in a Jeep filming a team of wild horses running down a beach and his editing the video on the fly. Then another of a young couple snuggled in the front seat of their car preparing to watch a full length film together on the Tab propped up on the dash.
Then I see an iPad ad. They show a grandmother video chatting with their grandkids; children reading interactive, educational books; learning math; playing games together; downloading books from the Apple Store; browsing photos and web sites, etc.
Even thought the Tab may be capable of doing most of those things, they don’t show you those things because in reality, they aren’t as easy and as intuitive as they are on the iPad. Seriously, how many of us are going to drive down a beach filming horses or sitting in the front seat of your car for 90+ minutes watching a movie on a 10″ screen with our dates?
Apple shows you things that you can and probably WILL do with the iPad, and how easily it can be done.
Is a fair point, though if the statement is intended to summarise the competition in general it does hold true as generally they seem to price match it at best, in some cases at least adopting the same price per gb structure as Apple. From personal opinion only, the two you cite that do undercut it offer noticeably inferior build quality. I believe the Icona may also have a poorer battery but I cannot vouch for this from first hand experience.
Mind you, at least that might mean that they are learning. That they realise that most people want to know what you can actually do with it, not how many Mhz the CPU runs at.
The claim that it is all about the marketing does seem to be self defeating in some ways though. Since the current tablet PC market is essentially built on the iPad, it would also follow that any other tablets offering similar functionality also owe their success to Apple’s marketing. That they would never be strong enough products in their own right to make an impact, without slick marketing.
“Android is really taking off, no two ways about it.”
Really?
The latest numbers by Charlie Wolf of Needham & Associates indicates that Android’s market share is flattening out, and/or perhaps poised to fall over the coming quarters, due to increased competition from the likes of Apple and other forthcoming competition.
idk, if ASUS had more marketing muscle and distributing support then they would be in the spotlight. The EEE PAD Transformer, which I own one, is destroying the Xoom. ACER and Galaxy Tab 10.1 in sales. It was the only tablet that met my needs, as it can be used as a netbook replacement with the kyeboard dock. It’s battery life (with the dock) also is way better than the iPad.