
Android overtakes iPad in tablet race - dataminer
http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/android-overtakes-ipad-tablet-race-8C11278308
======
beloch
It's hard to find good sales numbers on specific tablets. 4.6 million Nexus
7's were sold[1] in 2012, but I haven't found data on how many of the 2012
model sold in 2013, or how many of the 2013 model have sold so far. Still,
this is one model that appears to be selling in numbers nobody would have
predicted for an Android tablet at the beginning of 2012.

The iPad mini, however, is more difficult to judge. Apple hasn't released
sales numbers that don't lump the mini in with other models, suggesting it's
been a failure and they're afraid to reveal how few have actually sold[2]. A
failure by Apple's standards might be a runaway success by most other's
standards, but the mini clearly isn't flying off the shelves the way an Apple
device in a new form-factor should. It's specs were disappointing and it
offered questionable value, so this isn't a huge surprise. I would bet good
money that the next gen mini will treat the form-factor properly instead of
giving it sloppy seconds, but consumers may have negative associations with
the iPad mini brand that need to be overcome.

Personally, I think Apple really underestimated the appeal of the 7" tablet. A
bigger screen is certainly nicer for some things, but 7" is perfect for
reading ebooks and the smaller size of 7" tablets make them truly portable and
comfortable to use hand-held. I'd love to see good sales numbers to see if it
really is 7" tablets that are boosting Android sales and dragging down Apple's
sales. If so, this might be a situation where an under-served market allowed
an agile opponent to bust into a market firmly held by a single dominant
incumbent!

\-----

[1][http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Google-Nexus-7-Tablet-
Sales...](http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Google-Nexus-7-Tablet-
Sales,21179.html)

[2][http://www.businessinsider.com/ipad-mini-
sales-2012-11](http://www.businessinsider.com/ipad-mini-sales-2012-11)

~~~
arrrg
Apple in general doesn’t report how different models of a product sell. That
it also didn’t for the iPad mini doesn’t indicate anything. (The only
exception I can think of is the iPod touch were Apple also didn’t report any
specific numbers but at least said that most iPods sold were iPod touches. I
think it’s quite obvious why Apple felt compelled to be a bit more specific in
this case, what with the iPod touch running iOS and being part of the
ecosystem, unlike all other iPods. Other than that Apple will report how many
portable Macs they sold, how many desktop Macs they sold, how many iPods they
sold, how many iPads they sold and how many iPhones they sold.)

That Business Insider article is pure bologna, no doubt written by someone who
is quite clueless about how Apple typically reports its numbers. You can go
back through apple.com/pr and look at everything they typically release after
launches and Apple’s pattern becomes quite clear.

(I also think it’s general consensus that the iPad mini is quite successful.
Which is not saying anything about hypotheticals. If you measure Apple against
the size of the market they clearly _could_ sell more. Can they, do they have
to, do they want to and can Apple’s iPad business still be considered a
success if it doesn’t are then, I feel, the most relevant questions.)

~~~
Steko
Minor tangent but Apple did release a specific number of ipod touches when
they hit the 100 million mark last year.

~~~
arrrg
Ah! Cool, didn't remember that. Do you know any other examples? I couldn't
think of any, but it's very possible that my memory is somewhat spotty in that
regard (but the general paatern of what Apple does and doesn't release is
nevertheless clear.)

------
lobotryas
I never understood these comparisons. How can we reasonably compare a hardware
product (iPad) with an operating system that runs on a large number of other
tablets? I understand that it's a convenient "us vs them" analogy, but it
makes no sense at closer examination.

~~~
AnthonyMouse
The comparison isn't of the hardware product, it's of the operating systems.
Developers want to know what the installed base and rate of change for users
of each OS is so they know the target market size to make decisions like which
OS to develop an app for first. Consumers want to know what other consumers
are doing because they don't want to get stuck with a device (like a
Blackberry) that the market is abandoning and no one is making third party
apps for.

~~~
h4wker
If that's the case, then should we be including Kindle in the Android basket?

Amazon pretty much owns its own fork, and is substantially different.

~~~
AnthonyMouse
Maybe. It's still a lot easier to get an existing Android app to run on a
Kindle than it is to get it to run on an iPad.

It seems like kind of a moot point anyway. The Kindle has less than 5% market
share. Even if you take it out, what really changes?

------
moca
In term of global sales, Android tablet could be more than iPad these days. In
term of usage, iPad would be much more than all Android tablets [1].
Additionally, an iPad has 2-3x life span than Android tablet on average (I has
used over a dozen tablets). I seriously don't like to see so many low-quality
tablets thrown into market. You are much better of buying second hand iPad.

[1] [http://www.cultofmac.com/233063/ipads-web-usage-share-
hits-5...](http://www.cultofmac.com/233063/ipads-web-usage-share-hits-5-month-
high/)

------
bdcravens
I'd love to see this broken up by what I'd call "true tablets" (like the Nexus
7) and devices that are marketed primarily for media consumption by the media
producers (Nook HD/Kindle Fire).

In the wild (I'm talking Houston, not SF or NYC, so maybe it's a different
story), I see very few non-iPad tablets. I can't honestly recall seeing more
than maybe 1 out of 50 or 100. I do see tons of Android phones, however.
(Maybe it can be explained that Android tablet users are less likely to show
off, and keep the device in their home/office?)

------
caycep
that being said, it's a rare occasion I actually see an android tablet in "the
field"...

~~~
bane
My anecdote, I know lots of people who own some kind of Android tablet but no
iOS device and lots of people who own iOS devices who own at least one Android
tablet.

------
jsz0
I'm so tired of the horse race analogies. Competition in business is more like
an elaborate multi decade gymnastics competition than a horse race. Both
Google and Apple are doing a great job executing their different business
models. It's like two gymnasts doing very different routine and ending up with
close or tied scores even though their points on individual things may greatly
differ.

------
mark_l_watson
I love my Galaxy III Android phone. Incredibly nice as a phone, social media,
games, and even has a neat little Java IDE to build apps right on the phone.

I was waiting for the new Nexus 7 and when it was released I made a snap
decision to stay with iPad, giving my iPad 2 to a family member and buying an
iPad mini.

For one thing, it is simply more fun to own one of each types of device. Way
more fun.

Secondly, I have workflows in place on my iPad (e.g., working on book
manuscripts using leanpub + dropbox + IA Writer; ssh into my servers) that I
can also do on My Android phone, but I like working on the iPad.

For consumers, having both OS options can only be a good thing.

------
darkchyld
"To begin with, no single manufacturer of tablets comes close to Apple in
terms of volume. Android as a whole may sell more devices than Apple, but the
ecosystem is split between the likes of Samsung, Amazon, Asus and others. The
full-size iPad and the iPad Mini are still the best-selling models out there.
Android may have slightly more of the pie, it has to be split more ways."

As usual the title implies one thing and the articles says another. The usual
Apple is doomed story to gain some additional pageviews to sell ads. Same old
same old.

------
downandout
Android will always have a larger install base than iOS. iPads are aimed at
the upper end of the market, while Android is installed on a wide variety of
tablets aimed at different budgets and form factors. This is far from an an
apples-to-apples comparison. While the Android fanboys love numbers like this,
it says exactly nothing about the advantages of either OS. Both platforms have
enough market share that both must be targeted for apps to be successful
anyway, so specific market share really doesn't matter.

~~~
lokedhs
But it is important to mention these things. It's needed as a counter weight
to the message that was spread not long ago by people like Gruber, "there is
no tablet market, only the ipad market"

------
alexeisadeski3
These statistics are hard to square with the fact that I've observed a total
of two Android tablets in the wild.

~~~
pjmlp
Living in USA I assume.

------
eonil
Overtakes in number. Wow that's really so impressive. And now show me how much
people spend money on there.

~~~
zmmmmm
I think you're supposed to have moved on to "But nobody uses their Android
tablet, they are all sitting in closets" line.

------
auctiontheory
Much as I like my iPads, the lack of Flash support is still a problem. Steve
made the wrong call there.

~~~
cremnob
This is a joke right?

~~~
glhaynes
It's too bad @shit_hn_says on Twitter has apparently shut down.

------
notatoad
It seems rather silly to report sales numbers in a market where nobody reports
sales numbers. For an actual measurable statistic, we should look at usage
numbers. And in that race, iOS tablets are far far ahead of android tablets.

------
nazgulnarsil
When do we start counting phones? The galaxy mega is 6.3 inches.

------
kunai
I hate these types of articles because they bring out the worst of HN.
Accusations of fanboys and vitriol over both sides are spewed and
incomprehensible arguments rule.

It's like Slashdot all over again.

------
jsemrau
How can a software overtake a hardware ?

Sensationalist headline.

------
enraged_camel
Look at all these Android fanboys upvoting a nonsense article to the front-
page. _tsk tsk..._

>>The iPad, long the best-selling tablet in the world, has received a check to
its dominance: Android has taken the lead in both tablets sold and in the
money people paid for them.

Yea, when you flood the market with cheap, shitty tablets it's easy to "take
the lead." The thing that is often forgotten is that the money made from iPad
sales goes directly into Apple's coffers, whereas Android sales benefit mostly
the manufacturers. And just like with iPhone vs. Android, we see which devices
are actually _used:_

[http://chitika.com/files/Android%20vs%20iOs%20Overall%20Shar...](http://chitika.com/files/Android%20vs%20iOs%20Overall%20Share%20of%20Web%20Traffic.png)

~~~
saiko-chriskun
easy to take the lead with cheap, shitty tablets? why don't you put out a
cheap, shitty product and tell me how that goes.

