Apple's iPad Crushing Motorola's Xoom

I saw a commercial on TV this morning for some tablet. At the end, it said something like "the first company to get the tablet right". Um, maybe the company that sells millions and millions of tablets got it right. :)

further confirming we won't be seeing the iPad 3 this year.

It's interesting how Google is unable to translate their smartphone share into tablet share.

Android is doing well in the smartphone space because the carriers are promoting the handsets. For example, Verizon used to promote BlackBerries as their top smartphone. BlackBerries sold well as a result. Verizon threw BlackBerry down the staircase when Android handsets became available, and Android handsets did well at Verizon.

But now Verizon is promoting iPhone as their top smartphone. Android sales have leveled off at Verizon as a result. And just wait until the current crop of Android users come off-contract and can switch to iPhone without paying the huge early termination fee. Down the staircase you go, Android.

Things are different in the iPad and iPad clone market. The carriers couldn't care less about iPad because there's so little money in it for them. So what if a user pays a few bucks for monthly 3G connectivity? The carriers want you to buy big-minute voice plans, pay for data by the gigabyte, and to fork over sucker money for texting privileges.

So, without all that hype from the cell carriers, the iPad and its clones must fend for themselves on the open market. No carrier hype. No carrier lock-in. The best iPad or iPad clone wins in the battle royale that is the consumer electronics market. Right?

Wrong. iPad + iOS is just the tip of the ecosystem iceberg, to mix metaphors. iPad is just an empty frame for iOS. And iOS gets out of the way as quickly as possible. So users can go straight to their apps, media, and communication. And Apple is working hard on the app / media / communication technology infrastructure for the 21st century. And everyone knows it.

But the Xoom can do Flash!!! LOL!!

It doesn't seem to be killer feature. ;)

Flash is no longer a factor. A flash-less iPad is setting the standard and dominating, while a Flash-less iPhone on its own carries 28% share, while a Flash-less iOS the dominant mobile OS.

It's almost as if Flash was always a non-factor. In fact, it always *was* a non-factor.

‘You’ll Rule the World’
Alan Kay, regarding his reaction to the iPhone in January 2007:

When the Mac first came out, Newsweek asked me what I [thought] of it. I said: Well, it’s the first personal computer worth criticizing. So at the end of the presentation, Steve came up to me and said: Is the iPhone worth criticizing? And I said: Make the screen five inches by eight inches, and you’ll rule the world.


http://daringfireball.net/

It's interesting how Google is unable to translate their smartphone share into tablet share.

Is this really surprising?

People don't want a tablet; they want an iPad.

We've proven many times around here that web browsing statistics bear little or no relationship to actual sales of any item.

For example: using such numbers, we would conclude that there are as many iPads out there as all the iPhones and iPod touches combined.

The reality is far, far different. While iPads account for 50% of all iOS browsing, they are only 1/8 of all iOS sales.

But the numbers in the article are comparing tablets to tablets. I think the comparison is legitimate, and your example doesn't apply.

Edit: and I mean this study:
http://www.netmarketshare.com/2011/06/01/Where-s-the-iPad-s-Competition

Perspective:

http://www.netmarketshare.com/2011/06/01/Where-s-the-iPad-s-Competition

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2011/jul/06/ipad-browsing-web-domination-android

In other words, for every thousand page views by a tablet, 965 would come from an iPad, 19 from a Galaxy Tab, 12 from a Xoom and 3 from a PlayBook. (In market share terms, that would show up as Android having a 3 percent share.)

With 25m iPads sold, that would imply (on a like-for-like basis) that there are something like half a million Galaxy Tabs in use, and 325,000 Xooms.