
Putting iPad Sales in Context - barredo
http://daringfireball.net/2012/04/ipad_sales_context
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rollypolly

      a sum of money that three years ago was a record
      quarterly profit is now just the blip between the
      (historically strong) holiday quarter and the
      (historically weak) January-March quarter.
    

This is definitely the best quote.

I'm wondering if Apple's mainstream-ness is going to catch up to them soon
with the hipster crowd. Then again, the only other major options for consumers
are Microsoft-based which are even more mainstream and corporate.

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pbhjpbhj
> _the only other major options for consumers are Microsoft-based_ //

Not heard of Android then?

"Apple's market share in tablet segment slipped from 64 percent to 57 percent
in Q4, 2011, According to the research reports from iSuppli, Amazon's Kindle
with an impressive 14 percent growth in the market snagged a large share of
iPad sales in Q4, 2011."
([http://www.91mobiles.com/blog/10192/Apple+iPad+tablet+market...](http://www.91mobiles.com/blog/10192/Apple+iPad+tablet+market+share+slumped+to+57+percent.html))

"In Forrester’s analysis, Samsung has a 5 percent share; Motorola 4 percent
and Acer a 3 percent share. HP’s TouchPad, now discontinued, had a 6 percent
share, but that was during that series of crazy fire sales when everyone
suddenly rushed to buy one." ([http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/05/forrester-no-
android-tablet...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/05/forrester-no-android-
tablet-has-more-than-5-share-vs-ipad-how-does-amazons-kindle-fire-compare/))

TechCrunch here estimates Kindle Fire to have sold 40% as many units as iPad
for the "holiday quarter".

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rollypolly
You're right. I wasn't thinking in terms of mobile (doh). Good catch.

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helen842000
I think another important point is that the iPad didn't replace an existing
tablet in the users home.

It was an entirely new genre of device. No doubt when people bought macs they
probably had some kind of computer before it. Most iphone users were just
replacing their previous phone, just as the first ipod users were unhappy with
their 15 song capacity generic mp3 player.

To gain such adoption for a tablet device that people didn't previously knew
they needed - is huge!

They first convinced the market they needed a tablet and second that the iPad
was the right product to meet that need. Incredible!

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induscreep
So why should anyone believe analyst estimates again? Don't they base their
estimates on shady equations?

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smashing
Not all analysis are the same, so, depending on which analyst whose business
politics you buy into, its Caveat Emptor.

