Tablet dollars: Android passed Apple for first time in Q3 | Hacker News Reader

Tablet dollars: Android passed Apple for first time in Q3

tech.fortune.cnn.com

22 pointsarunitc20 comments

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.

/ useful for click-bait headlines.

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.

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.

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%?

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

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?

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.

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.

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?

For the one quarter right before new editions of the iPad came out. Would take it with a grain of salt.

A grain of salt now, a mountain later. I'm not saying the numbers are legit, just that if they are it's only a matter of time before Apple is enveloped by the Android hoard.

Yes, that is the assertion in the article.

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.

They guessed at the revenues, not the profits. Apart from Apple and Samsung, no one is making money selling tablets.

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.

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.

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.

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.

If a manufacturer is putting out virtually disposable electronics they should be on the hook for recycling them. Electronics are a horror show of toxic waste and that cost should be born by the source. 7" Android tablets go for as little as $30 on eBay.

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