
Tablet dollars: Android passed Apple for first time in Q3 - arunitc
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/11/15/apple-ipad-huberty-idc/
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codelust
Notable point being this part:

"Working from the tracking numbers IDC released two weeks ago".

Extrapolation, like this, has very limited use and is vaguely indicative at
best and nowhere close to being reliable for anything other than fancy-
sounding talking points.

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bigdubs
/ useful for click-bait headlines.

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drzaiusapelord
Not too long ago, android buyers were regularly shouted down on HN with
"There's no tablet market, there's only an ipad market" when discussing how
fun and usable the N7 is.

Interesting how things have turned out. I guess a low-cost quality 7-inch
tablet was something the market was demanding but whatever cargo cultism
Jobs/Cook and Ivy subscribed to made this an impossibility for a long time.

I personally have an N10 and love it. My main use case is downloading
torrents; something I can't do on iOS without a jailbreak.

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jasonrr
The data presented in this article is extremely suspect. The methodology for
both the collection of shipment information and the extrapolation to revenue
are secret (or at least not reported here -- see the update at the bottom of
the story). As a community that is concerned with accuracy and precision, I
think we should be bothered by this. Instead it's a launchpad for arguments
based on conjecture and personal anecdote.

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gress
What does this even mean? Most Android tablets are cheap video players sold in
China.

It's great that Android is enabling these devices to be built, but comparing
the revenue of low end video players with iPads is nonsensical.

Android is a free OS that can be used to make any kind of embedded appliance.
iOS is the operating system used in Apple's mobile computers.

How is it surprising or informative that Apple's share of consumer electronics
revenue in general is lower than 50%?

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josefresco
I love the update at the bottom which basically says "we have no idea how they
got these numbers"

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bluedino
Since Android phones have out-sold iPhones, it shouldn't be surprising that
the same happens with Android tablets.

But what are the numbers when it comes to web traffic from those devices and
app purchases etc?

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notatoad
If you're looking for a way to say "iOS is still winning", then yes, there's
vastly more web traffic generated by iOS than by android. but that's beside
the point. Android tablets are mainstream now. John Gruber's old article [1]
"there is no tablet market, there's only an iPad market" is obviously no
longer true.

~~~
Samuel_Michon
It depends on what you mean by a ‘tablet market’. On the hardware side, sure,
there are plenty of companies that sell Android tablets (albeit often at a
loss). On the software side however, I don’t think there’s a tablet market,
there’s just an iPad market. Owners of Android tablets don’t buy apps and many
of those tablets don’t run recent versions of Android which makes it very hard
to create the same quality apps that are available for iPad.

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pazimzadeh
So Amazon, Samsung, Google, HP, ASUS, and all other companies that make
Android tablets now make more money together than Apple does on the iPad?

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jsight
Yes, that is the assertion in the article.

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ctdonath
That is the assertion of the _title_ , but the _body_ of the article (correct
me if I'm wrong) refers to total _units_ , not noting that (A) it took Amazon,
Samsung, Google, HP, ASUS, and all other companies that make Android tablets
lumped together to out-sell essentially a single product[1] from Apple, (B)
most of those devices were low-price low-profit-margin units as contrasted
with Apple making some 50% profit off each sale, and (C) how many of those
units were relegated to minor usage (or disused entirely in short order) for
minor purposes (video player, occasional games) vs "heavy use" (broadly
speaking; see other comment about actual network traffic).

My snide "it's Friday and this coffee was too strong" side envisions
comparison of the aggregated productivity & vitality of our intrepid hero
against waves of zombies.

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Bud
Apple's investors, I can assure you, take precisely zero "comfort" in Apple
leading in revenue. They care about profit. By that metric, the only metric
that really counts, Apple is dominating.

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einehexe
There should be a law that manufacturers have to take back their cheap tablets
and phones for recycling so they don't end up a toxic pile in a landfill.

~~~
dangrossman
Why must there be a law? What major tablet market doesn't already have free
electronics recycling available? In the US, most big-box electronics stores
take items for recycling from any manufacturer. Given the very high price
floors seen in used tablet markets (eBay, Craigslist, etc), I doubt all that
many are being thrown out in the first place.

~~~
Bud
This is only because Apple basically invented the entire tablet market in
2010, just a few years ago.

This will change quite rapidly, starting approximately now, as various tablets
begin to become more and more obsolete.

