SYNAPSE CIRCUIT ANDROID TABLET SALES SURPASS iPAD

SYNAPSE CIRCUIT
ANDROID TABLET SALES SURPASS iPAD 2013
#AndroidTablets #Android #Tablets

Good evening, Synapse Circuit Readers! How are you? I hope that you had a great weekend! I spent much of it chilling out with family!

Can you believe that I am still in the market for a tablet? I keep saying that I am going to get one but I haven’t quite been convinced...

ANDROID TABLETS OVERTAKE
Fuelled by a 127 percent surged in worldwide sales, Android tablets collectively overtook the iPad last year, research firm Gartner said Monday.

Android tablet sales jumped to 120.9 million in 2013 to snag a global market share of 61.9 percent, up from sales of 53.3 million and a 45.8 percent share in 2012. Over the same time, iPad sales grew to 70.4 million from 61.4 million. But Apple's share of the tablet market dropped to 36 percent from 52.8 percent.

Apple's slice of the market fell amid increased demand for smaller, low-cost, name-brand tablets and cheap "white-box" products from off-brand manufacturers in emerging regions, Gartner said. Tablet sales for the whole industry grew by 145 percent across emerging markets compared with 31 percent in mature markets.

"In 2013, tablets became a mainstream phenomenon, with a vast choice of Android-based tablets being within the budget of mainstream consumers while still offering adequate specifications," Gartner research director Roberta Cozza said in a statement.

Apple hung onto its spot as the top tablet maker, leaving Samsung in second place with 37.4 million in sales and a market share of 19.1 percent. But Samsung was on fire last year compared with 2012 when it sold just 8.5 million tablets and eked out a 7.4 percent share.

Overall tablet sales hit 195.4 million in 2013, a 68 percent increase from 2012.

(Credit: Gartner)

NO SURPRISE
This news is hardly surprising. I think that the reason for the iPad decline is the iPad mini; as soon as I got wind of the iPad mini I predicted that it would cannibalize the sales of the iPad and it seems that this is happening. The trouble with Apple is that they send out mixed messages:-

1. Steve Jobs said that he would never stoop to the smaller tablet. When Tim Cook took over as CEO he stooped to the smaller iPad. In my opinion this cheapened the iPad as standalone product of outstanding quality. In creating the iPad mini many people saw this as Apple questioning the viability of the iPad which is very expensive to begin with and if that wasn’t enough they changed the 30-pin dock connector to the current Lightning standard with no adapter and therefore it rendered 30-pin peripherals obsolete unless an adapter was purchased for an extra £25! Then the biggest killer is the constant need, if you want to stay up-to-date, to upgrade. The iPad consumer spends a lot of money with the window space of up to a year (or less) to make use of the device.

2. The iPad mini made consumers question the more expensive iPad, “If I can still use the same apps on the mini then why would I bother to go for the iPad?”

3. Compared to the Android tablets the iPad mini is not a competitor where price is concerned. The Nexus 7 2013 edition offers superb quality for the money!

4. The iPad market seems rather confused. It’s too expensive for entertainment purposes – just ask the parents whose children have racked up a huge credit card bill through in app purchases! Then one has to ask, “Am I not better off with a laptop / Macbook Air?”

THOSE OTHER GUYS
As you should now, the Android tablet panders to a more versatile market: Entertainment, Social Networking / Internet and Productivity / Business.

I’ve seen people pick up tablets for the sole purpose of alleviating the use of a desktop / laptop; an edutainment device for children and an augmentation to the PC as a productive device. You just can’t do that comfortably with the iPad and its mini variant.

I also wonder if the sales of phablets count as a tablet in the analysis. Again, it’s only Android, at the moment, that can offer the consumer such a wide choice of options in both usage and cost. I predict that the sales of Android tablets this year will reduce Apple’s percentage by another 15% - if not more!

Once again, let me draw your attention to some very interesting tablets coming our way soon:-

Lenovo Yoga Tablet 10 HD+

HP Slate 7 VoiceTab

Huawei MediaPad X1 LTE

Huawai MediaTab M1 LTE

Nvidia Tegra Note 7 LTE

Sony Xperia Z2

Archos 80 Helium LTE

What do you notice? That at least four of them are LTE compatible which means that not only can you use them as a phone but you can enjoy the download speeds of LTE! Now Apple can’t do that with their iPads! Instead Apple overcharges just for adding the little chip that’ll give the tablet LTE! I think it’s only a matter of time before other Android tablet manufacturers’ follows suit.

It is good to see that Huawei and Archos are stepping up with the innovations which should yield in record sales... I know for sure that I will be getting a tablet this year! How about you?

What do you reckon?   

Take good care!

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