Peter Misek, an analyst with Jeffries, has published a 115 page report that reveals there is very little interest in tablets from rivals of Apple’s iPad.
When people think tablet, they think iPad. And the figures back that up.
I know you’re probably thinking “115 pages! What a waste of paper!”, but the report is a bit more detailed than stating the obvious gap in demand between Apple and other tablets.
Misek expects 45 million iPad sales in 2011 and a further 65 million in 2012. By contrast, Samsung, Apple’s main rival, is expected to sell 7 million units of their tablets in 2011 and 12 million in 2012.
Misek also predicts that 2011 will see the greatest growth in the tablet market with 289% growth compared to 2010. That growth will stifle to 126% in 2012, followed by 27% and 23% in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
However, if you tote up all the Android powered tablets, by 2014 they will account for combined sales of approximately 118 million devices (not counting “other”). The result is a massive 38 million more Android tablets sold than Apple’s iPad range which is expected to sell 90 million units in the same period.
Yesterday at Reuters Technology Summit in New York, Jen-Hsun Huang, Nvidia’s CEO made the bold claim that Android tablets will outsell the iPad in 3 year’s time. Huang’s rationale was based on Android SmartPhones outselling the iPhone within a similar period of time.
Judging by the report released my Misek, Huang’s prediction may well prove to be right!
However, let’s not forget that the comparison is of the combined sales of devices that run a tablet operating system (Android) with an actual tablet device (iPad) and as a result is not a like-for-like comparison.
Android powered tablets outselling the iPad by 2014 does not make the iPad #2 in the tablet market. It merely means that Android OS is on more tablets than iOS.