

Samsung is among the big winners







Samsung tablets
Samsung tablets dominated in Q3, tripling their anemic 2011 sales.





Source: IDC

Comments     Threshold


My analysis...
By nafhan on 11/5/2012 5:19:43 PM , Rating: 5 that these are more indications that the tablet market as a whole is expanding A LOT rather than Apple doing poorly.
--Apple is still raking in the lion's share of the income on tablet hardware sales
--Apple actually sold considerably more tablets over the period where it lost market share
--Apple has different goals than the $200 tablet competitors (i.e. they're hardware company)

Basically, Apple's doing very, very well in an expanding market. They just don't have clear control of the market anymore, and it's likely to stay that way unless the justice department decides Apple needs some help.

Also, I think the market share numbers are concerning to Apple, or they would not have released the iPad Mini. It'll be interesting to see how that impacts things. I personally think the iPad Mini is the most mediocre product in Apple's line up, but it's relatively cheap and it's got the logo... so, we'll see. iPad Mini = capitalism at work, which is kind of cool.

RE: My analysis...
By GulWestfale on 11/5/2012 5:35:22 PM , Rating: 2
all the above excuses could also apply to RIM. "yes the blackbaerry has lost market share, but the market is expanding faster than we are; and besides those customers that buy competing products are not our target market."

in the end, these numbers mean two things:
- android is slowly but surely catching up.
- more people are buying tablets.

one would need to see a market analysis to see whether people are buying tablets now because cheap, good android tablets are now becoming available, which would prove that apple isn't gaining as many new customers with its high priced, low-value ipads as google with high-value tablets like the nexus 7.

i guess we will have a bit more info on this (and on how the market develops) after christmas.

RE: My analysis...
By nafhan on 11/5/2012 8:40:05 PM , Rating: 2
RIM and Apple's positions really have little in common. Marketshare is only one number out of many to describe how well a company is doing, and honestly marketshare is about the only one where Apple is looking even a little bit bad.

I don't care for their products myself, but arguing that their business is about to go bust is crazy (and that's what you're doing by comparing them to RIM).

RE: My analysis...
By theapparition on 11/6/2012 10:40:14 AM , Rating: 2

Agreed in theory, but this market is a bit different from others, including the PC market.

The average lifespan of the new car is 8 years before buyers look for a new one. TVs and other home electronics are even longer. Even PCs are on a 4-5 year cycle now. Phones and tablets seem to have a 1-2 year churn rate. That's HUGE when it comes to the talk about current sales and market trends.

Within a few years, you can go from the dominant manufacturer to an also ran. We saw that happen both in a positive way for Apple and a negative way for RIM. Two years ago Apple was the market leader and now Android is outselling 5:1 for phones.

Certainly the market is expanding, but if market share trends continue unfavorably to Apple, they could find themselves on the outside looking at what could have been. I'm certainly not attempting to claim they are doom and gloom. They are making quite a bit of money on their products. But at the same time, with the high churn rate of these products, all it takes is consumer sentiment to shift and we can see dramatic changes in the phone/tablet landscape.

RE: My analysis...
By nafhan on 11/6/2012 3:10:33 PM , Rating: 2
I'm not saying things won't go bad for Apple. I'm also not saying they will go well. In fact, most of your points indicate uncertainty due to a rapidly changing market, and nothing more

Also, RIM never had anywhere close to the type of money that Apple has, right now. Apple's got national debt level numbers IN CASH sitting around. Apple could give away 600,000,000 iPad mini's ($120Bil/$200), or run the company at a loss for a really long time - just using the money in their cash reserves.

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Google has sunk a fortune into Android without getting much back

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