People don't want tablets, they want iPads The phenomenal sales success of Apple's iPad shows no sign of abating, but sales for all other tablets competitors are stagnating and channel inventories are building. US tech titan HP is the latest to correct its prices, trimming £50 off the cost of a TouchPad in an effort to get them shifting, with the 16GB and 32GB versions …
"If only Apple sell tablets, and all other tablets are fine, which broadly they are, then it means (certain) people want Apple bling, not tablets."
Only the top of the range models from other manufacturers are broadly similar. Most of the cheaper offerings are nowhere near as good. It's actually very hard to find something that isn't actually rather poor *unless* you spend a lot of time investigating first.
This means that most 'average' buyers are looking at the ipad and deciding "too expensive", then looking at the cheaper alternative and going "yuk". They then either buy the expensive or give up and buy a laptop instead.
Obviously there is also a large-ish market share of people who do just buy apple anyway.
Your argument is: if you assume there's nothing wrong with the product then there's something wrong with the consumers.
I'm as surprised that Apple is staying ahead as anybody, but couldn't it just be that the glut of new tablets and the besmirching of Android's name by some very awful no-brand tablets are preventing decent tablets that make 'Android' a big part of the pitch from picking up momentum quickly?
I'll be more surprised than anyone if Apple's share still isn't significantly reduced a year from now.
I have a cheapo Android tablet and it is so bad I never want to try one again. Except I have seen the Apple product and it shows what they can be like. We definitely need an open alternative to Apple, just like the PC is an open alternative to Apple lock-in. What happened to the Windows Mobile in the tablet world? Why is Apple the only one that's any good?
q: What happened to the Windows Mobile in the tablet world?
a: Windows what?
q: Why is Apple the only one that's any good?
a: because they don't make cheap plastic toys with cheap plastic screens.
You wrote yourself. You have a CHEAP Android tablet. Stop comparing a 200UKP product with a 600UKP product. It would be truely bad if the 600UKP device was indeed worse than your cheap tablet.
Also Apple has the music- and moviebusiness in it's pocket. They have a vast library of the passive consumer content that Google just hasn't got. Plus the device is targetted for simplicity. It's the ideal replacement for the bedroom or the kitchen TV. While Google doesn't clearly define what Android really is. Is it for a computer? Is it for a phone? Is it for a mediaplyer? Or is it merely a handheld webbrowser?
so people dont want tablets they want ipads hum er a ipad is a tablet its the same thing as all those other square thingys. you wont be seeing me getten any apple tablet or phones etc. oh yea the real reason why apple has blocked the galaxy tab is because they dont like the competition and the fact the galaxy tab is thinner than the ipad hahaha, il pass on anything apple
Having just bought a bottom-of-the range Archos 101 tablet for a mere £150 (just dropped from £200 at Carphone Whorehouse), I'm happy as a badger in a pile of worms. It's not fancy, and the viewing angles are a bit tight, but it's great for 90% of what tablets three times the price actually get used for.
The problem is that most of the other tablets are too close to the iPad in price. The iPad is still seen as the tablet to covet, so any competitors need to be coming in with something of similar quality but at a significantly lower price. Otherwise, most people are simply going to stick with what they've seen most of, and get an iPad.
Personally I'm tight and my 10" gen2 Hannspad with custom Rom is doing me just fine. For the princely sum of £127.49. As far as I can tell it does everything that a Tegra 2 based Fondle Slab should and I'm not even fussed about it being fatter than an iPad or that it only has an 8 hour battery life.
I think this is going to run the same course as netbooks. They all started out using Linux, and so were not particularly useful for most people. Once they started shipping with Windows then they found a broader audience. So next year when we have Windows 8 Tablets then non-Apple tablet sales will increase, if the price is reasonable.
This has got nothing whatsoever to do with the masses wanting an ipad. All these tablets cost around a third of their selling price to produce. All this tells us is that the only fools willing to pay over the odds for their tablets are those who have been infected by the jobsian cult.
When the iPad first came out I recall people being surprised that its price was so low given the cost of its components; seemed Apple wanted to jump start the market instead of make their usual hardware profit. Maybe the cost of these components has come down but I'd be surprised if an iPad-like tablet costs only ~$150 to produce.
Where did you get your numbers from? Does it actually have anything in there for marketing? Did the design just come up at no cost? The cost of components are not the cost of manufacture, and Apple's leading device, the iPhone is probably responsible for the largest parts of Apple's profit margins as they get full retail from the carriers for every one sold.
More to the point. Amazon isn't allowed to sell iPads, only the scammers and third parties put iPads on Amazon as the actual company has no agreement with Apple to sell the iPad. This is why the sales charts on Amazon are not the place to go when trying to work out how well the iPad is selling because they don't there.
Has iPad2 32GB wifi +3G for $729 add tax to that and you get to about $760 depending on your locale. The BOM is fairly widely available and varies by only a few dollars, the number I quoted came from slashgear, and the percentage profit Apple makes is widely available as they have to report their company results. As to marketing costs, I have no clue, but I doubt it could make up anywhere near the difference between the BOM and the retail price.
I don't want an iPad (and i say that as a Jesus Phone owner), I want a decent Android fondleslab for under £300.
Sounds like they're heading in the right direction - if anybody thinking of buying a non-iPad tablet of fondlesom joy can hold off for a while, just to ensure they drop the price by another £50, that'd be grand.
Cartman: Okay, wifi plus 3G, 64 gigs. This one, this one!
Liane: Oh, sweetie, $900?
Cartman: I can't wait to see the look on Kyle's stupid face when he sees my iPad has more memory than his!
Liane: Eric, we can't afford that one.
Cartman: Well you don't expect me to get the wifi-only 16-gig version, do you?
Liane: I think we need to get you a different brand, hon. They're a little cheaper.
Cartman: Mom, everyone knows that everything but Apple is stupid!
Liane: [sees something interesting] Here, look at this one. A Toshiba Handibook.
Cartman: Toshiba Handibook??
Liane: This says it does everything the iPad does, at half the price.
Cartman: Mom, do not screw me over again! If I take that thing to school, everyone is gonna think I'm a poverty-stricken asshole!
Liane: Eric, stop acting like a spoiled brat! You can either have the Toshiba Handibook or you can hae nothing at all!
Cartman: [looks at her for a second] Oh, I've got a better idea! Why don't you go across the street and buy some condoms?! Because we should at least be safe if you're gonna fuck me, Mom!
"Ironically, Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 would have challenged Apple in terms of size, weight and specs, ...."
no disrespect, but no one outside of tech circles has ever heard of the Galaxy Tab. The word synonymous with tablet devices is IPAD.
People who want a tablet I see fall into 3 categories.
Technical people: such as reg readership (who will buy devices purely on capability and technical merit).
Then you have Joe/Jane Public with £700 burning a hole in their pocket
Then Joe/Jane Public who dont have £700 to burn.
Give any Joe/Jane public a choice of tablets FOC and I'd say 99% would choose IPAD.
Its fashionable, its simple, its been marketed perfectly by Apple- much to every other manufacturers disgust.
I cannot see any tablet gaining as much popularity as the IPAD until something easier or more fashionable comes out, or has its own "must have niche."
I think the "Joe/Jane Public who dont have £700 to burn" are by far the mass market and so the most important market and its interesting that they are now the most important segment of the market that is fueling the very rapid growth of Android phones, as some Android phones are much cheaper. So it means once Tablet prices really come right down (and they will) then its likely Android tablet sales will really start to take off big time.
For example, now I have a smart phone, I find myself often using my phone to quickly lookup stuff on the Internet rather than go to the hassle of booting up my PC. But the one thing I would like at home is a bigger screen than my mobile has. So a tablet laying around at home would be very convenient for quickly looking up stuff. :)
So for me, the price is the only thing holding me back from getting one ... for now. :)
Its the old economic supply and demand curve. Currently tablets are priced at the premium end of the market, but as soon as their prices come down (just as the mass market of lower spec mobiles are now doing), then demand will inevitably shoot up which will in turn lower manufacturing costs allowing even lower price points to become possible as it accelerates towards a mass market. Which is good news for everyone who wants cheap technology. :)
1) Mass market = low profit
- incidentally this didn't stop many from the "mass market" to buy ipad/iphones.
2) A phone <> a tablet
- noneteless the rapid growth of Android phones is nothing compared to iPhone's market penetration. Especially considering the profits made on Apple products while e.g. HTC has already a 5$ COST to microsoft on every Android device sold.
3) You described a distinct use for the thing (occasionally surf the web without the hassle of a computer). For that single use you're obviously not going to spend 700UKP (which is a perfectly sane reasoning). But the majority of ipad users perform many tasks with their device, many of these tasks replace their desktop PC needs (email, surf, read books, media consumption, entertain the kids at restaurants etc...). For their diversity of use an iPad is a much better device than a desktop or laptop computer.
- as is proven by another el-reg reader. iPads excel in their simplicity especially for generic consumers (and infants).
I predict that in time there will be a divide between consumers and creators. Tablets and low-en notebook/netbooks will be the mass-market computing products for passive consumers. While desktop computers and high powered notebooks will be for the ppl in IT-production process (e.g. secrataries, accountants) and/or creation (e.g. gfx-design, webdesing, software development). Apple has the best position for the passive consumer market because of their ties with music- and moviesuppliers and unrivaled the success of iTunes-store as a passive media-selling portal. Even today iTunes makes more money from music then from apps but I agree that the apps are more in the spotlight these days. Due to many tech sites "reviewing" every jackshit app on it. Even El Reg does it.
Which imho it shouldn't. ElReg is European it should put European tech at the forefront and not US-tech. But every day there's either an iOS or an Android app that gets reviewed while native European technoly gets neglected. It's a goddamn shame!
Your arguments are circular, inconsistent and difficult to follow. Nevertheless, I do understand where you are going. The point where I believe you are seriously wrong is: "Apple has the best position for the passive consumer market because of their ties with music- and moviesuppliers and unrivaled the success of iTunes-store as a passive media-selling portal." Barring some cataclysmic head injury with an inability to differentiate between a slice of toast and a polar bear with hemorrhoids, I doubt I will ever admit that the cogital abortion known as "iTunes" is a positive in any world.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Don't forget that, unlike desktop PC's, tablets are phallus symbols. Just like cars. Ppl buy them to show off. Apple is Bling. If you can afford an iPad then you're with incrowd if you can't then you're a loser.
So do you wanna be with the incrowd or not?
I think one of the reason tablet sales might be a little disappointing is because the tablets themselves are a little disappointing.
At a conference recently an analyst said in order to sell a product against a dominant force you can't just be different, you have to be much better. The current crop of tablets aren't bad, they just aren't much better than the dominant brand.
Even the Mac, though it was far better than WIndoze, was not ENOUGH better to overcome the lowly PC. I was a PC user for many years before going mac. The FACT that Mac had it all over the PC only afforded Apple the ability to SURVIVE when literally EVER OTHER competitor was driven completely out of business.
You mean to say that every other competitor was driven INTO business, right? Apple Mac competes against HP, Dell, Toshiba, and so on. If the IBM-compatibles market (i.e. PC) didn't exist, we'd not have any of those businesses in any sort of business.
Unless you're attempting to make a trite and ignorant comparison between Apple's OSX and Microsoft's Windows. In which case Mac didn't survive at all, and had to go 'borrow' open source to get a working and compatible system.
It is easy to figure out why. Most people who buy tablets have them to show off with and not to do any real work on and if it's about showing off then your not going to want anything but an ipad.
This just leaves a few people who are not interested in showing of who have a need for something small on the go to buy a tablet that isn't an ipad.
> Keep telling yourself that, while we all use iCloud,
> beam to Apple TV, and integrate totally with all our
> other iDevices.
Why should you need some 3rd party on the Internet to deal with basic file sharing duties that 68K based Macs were doing quite effectively before Microsoft even had a suitable version of Windows built?
I have seen people use the iPad in a very useful way. Customer loads it up with all his documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Because the unit its held in the hand like a book it's at the perfect viewing distance. Because the screen and graphics are so powerful it is a breeze to zoom and scroll and turn pages. He can hand his client the iPad to show him the document.
Obviously it's better to prepared the documents on a machine with a keyboard but the usability of iOS compared to Windows put's Windows to shame.
However I refuse to be a Fanboi and want them to fix Android or Windows Mobile or something so I don't get sucked into Steve Jobs Brave New World.
Given Apple's lead and its large application eco-system, it was quite predictable that HP's TouchPad - based on their own WebOS and for which nobody's developing apps - would not sell. Even with a $100 discount. But is a bit more difficult to understand why Android-based tablets have not sold well either - after all, the Android app market is starting to be bigger than Apple's. I think the problem with Android vendors is, perhaps, one of sex appeal (or lack thereof) and usability (or lack thereof). The only Android tablet that comes close to Apple's iPad - or even exceeds it - in either of these categories is the Samsung 10.1 tablet...and Apple is doing its level best to sue it into oblivion. Other Android tablets are too chunky in girth or have underpowered user experiences, I think.
Finally, there's price: Apple has always charged a premium for its products. Android tablet makers have been trying to charge the same price as Apple - for products that aren't even as good as Apple's. Why would *anyone* pay an Apple premium (for material, design, user experience) without getting these benefits? The only way Android tablet makers will succeed meaningfully against the iPad is to sell it at a meaningful discount - e.g. for $399 (vs. Apple's $499)...or offer something substantially better.
Thomas, where'd you get the idea the Android App market is getting to be bigger than Apple's?
There are still only a couple of hundred Android tablet apps versus over 130,000 iPad apps.
Of course scaled-up phone apps just don't cut the mustard and even if you do count them, there are still far fewer Android phone apps, 45% of them are spamware and there is still only 10% the number of top tier game apps on Android.
Also Apple does not sell the iPad at a premium. Remember when the entire industry was shocked when Apple introduced the iPad at half the $1,000 they were expecting. Well competitors are still struggling to beat Apple's price particularly when they have to put in twice the amount of RAM because Android is far less efficient at using RAM than iOS.
Then there are Apple's enormous enconomies of scale and headlock on component supplies and you wonder why no-one can compete?
-Mart
Everyone knows that it's all just about the name, the brand, the image and not what can or can't be done with it.
It's a premium consumer brand, like Audi or BMW, Dyson, etc.. There are other cars, that are just as good, sometimes better and also cost less, but people like a premium badge.
Unless you are in the know, you won't entertain anything but the perceived leading brand.
I have an iPad 1 that I got when Apple did the £100 off thing and I can't see what any of the new tablets would give me over it? Flash? Why do I need flash?
Flash? Why do I need flash?
In order to properly view flash heavy websites whilst surfing on the sofa and avoiding whatever the dominant half may be currently watching on TV. Only having played with a iFondle for 20 minutes or so some time back at a mates house Im not sure if it renders flash heay sites properly or not but its definitely a reason for wanting flash.
You're right about the badge thing though.
I'm not a fan of flash heavy websites anyway. In most cases it's style over content IMHO. And with more and more people viewing the web on their phone/tablet, who really wants to wait for a flash heavy site to load and then fiddle round with it on a touch screen? And a lot of the functionality Flash is used for can be accomplished with JavaScript or HTML5 which degrade more gracefully on devices that can't handle Flash. I'd rather miss out on a bit of icing than not get the cake at all!
No, it's about far more than that. People are upgrading from iPod. Perhaps you have heard of it? LOL. And no-one, but the die hard techno geeks want anything with a "WINDOZE" badge on it. No longer, those days are OVER my friends.
You will see Apple go to 50% marketshare in the near future.
Apple's approach to applications — sandboxed and with very low permissions — should make it easy for suitable tools to spot any malware that comes along and basically prevent any propagation of trojans, which are the predominant threat everywhere nowadays. Apple have also started pushing OS updates on the desktop to eliminate malware where it crops up, suggesting they're at least taking the problem more seriously than they were.
I therefore don't expect serious malware problems on iOS.
I would imagine there may be more problems on Android because Google publish the code, meaning that you can determine what has been fixed from version to version and hence what vulnerabilities did exist previously, but a whole bunch of handset vendors then fail to pass the updates on to users. But if a real problem arises the market should be able to provide a solution because there's no walled garden, so I don't expect it'll have a major impact on Android's continuing fantastic adoption rate.
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