The PC market is fast shifting into a touchscreen world, and Apple is leading the charge. Some new numbers from the analysts at Canalys note that in Q4 of 2012, one in every three PCs shipped was a tablet, that Apple’s iPad accounted for about half of them, or one in every six of PCs. By combining PC and tablet figures — a logical thing to do, given that many are substituting tablet purchases and usage for PC purchases and usage — Canalys figures that worldwide PC shipments are actually on the rise — up by 12% to 134 million units. That’s in contrast to figures from Gartner, which in January noted that Q4 PC shipments were down by 5% on last year — without factoring in tablets.
Adding Apple’s iPad sales to its Mac sales gives it a leadership position among PC vendors. The company shipped 27 million units in Q4, giving it a 20.1% share of the market. Number-two vendor was HP, whose market share is based on its PC prowess. It shipped 15 million PCs, for an 11.2% share of the market. That let it edge just ahead of Lenovo, which shipped 200,000 fewer units.
Still, Android continues to make inroads. Canalys points out that this is the first quarter where Apple’s iPad has not accounted for more than 50% of all tablets shipped — it was 49%, as it happens, with Android accounting for 46%.
Apple’s savior was the iPad Mini: “‘Apple timed the launch of the iPad mini well,” writes Pin-Chen Tang, Canalys research analyst. “Its success proves there is a clear demand for pads with smaller screens at a more affordable price. Without the launch, Apple would surely have lost more ground to its competitors.” Indeed, that fact may well encourage Apple to look at more sizes and price points for its iOS devices in the future.
Overall, Canalys points out that the tablet market grew by 75% in Q4 to 46.2 million units, and that full-year shipments were 114.6 million units. Given that trend, Lenovo, which has been making some interesting hybrid models incorporating both touchscreen and keyboard features, could well pull ahead of HP if the latter doesn’t make some significant tablet inroads in the next couple of quarters.
Meanwhile, Samsung is at the other end of the spectrum: its strong performance at number four, with 11.7 million units (9% market share) is based mostly on the success of its line of Galaxy Tab tablets. It shipped 7.6 million of these in Q4, a rise of 226%.
Dell, which is hoping for a turnaround as a private company, rounded out the top five. For now it’s reputation “continues to fade,” Canalys writes, resulting in a 19% drop in shipments in the quarter. “A turnaround in fortunes is likely to take years,” they note — so just as well that Dell will not have to answer so quickly to the markets for its performance.
As other analysts have pointed out Windows 8 has so far had little impact on worldwide PC shipments, and an almost negligible impact on tablets — with only 3% of tablets shipped in the quarter based on Windows 8. That has had a knock-on effect both for Windows and for those who make devices using the OS. “Microsoft’s involvement in the Dell buyout raises eyebrows in the light of its recent aspirations to become a hardware vendor,” Canalys notes. “But it is not likely to solve Dell’s problems as even Microsoft struggles with pads.” Equally difficult was Windows RT, which failed to break even 1 million units at 720,000 shipped. “The outlook for Windows RT appears bleak,” noted Tim Coulling, Canalys senior analyst. He believes the only way out for this is for Microsoft to drastically reduce the licensing price, cutting further into its margins on the product.
Western Europe’s slow economy also continues to weigh things down.
Amazon, selling only tablets and no PCs (yet?), didn’t make the top five but still managed a substantial volume shift. Its shipments were 4.6 million units, almost mirroring Dell’s decline with growth of 18%. With the Kindle Fire now selling in more markets worldwide, it will be interesting to see if Amazon can see a big boost this year or if it will be stymied by Apple and Samsung. For now, international is doing a good enough job to offset some small declines in the U.S., where the launch of the higher-priced Kindle Fire HD not proving to be a runaway success as the initial launch of the Kindle Fire was a year ago.
Apple’s iPhone 5 is a popular grey market item, and the proximity of Hong Kong to mainland China makes it a particularly popular choice for stocking up on Apple hardware to be resold in the latter country. Now, there’s been a huge bust by Hong Kong Customs, according to a report by MIC Gadget. A truck containing 227 iPhone 5s, 22 iPads and a number of other electronics was caught yesterday trying to smuggle the goods into China.
The shipment contained roughly 1 million HKD in iPhones (around $ 129,000 U.S.), some of which were hidden within the actually dash of the truck itself. MIC Gadget notes that the use of a truck with a huge shipment like this is a relatively new development in Chinese smuggling operations, since before a tightening of security it was more common to just have individuals cross the border with much smaller, separate stashes of grey market Apple goods.
The iPhone 5 has yet to officially go on sale in China, which is likely only driving up demand for the device, though grey market channels remain popular for Apple’s hardware even after it hits store shelves officially in China, because shoppers are often interested in getting the smartphone off contract, which allows them to use it with China Mobile, for instance. And a recent report suggested that about half of the one million iPads sold in China during Q2 2011 were from the grey market. That’s because pricing outside China vs. pricing within the country allows grey market importers to collect a tidy profit and still undersell traditional channels.
The iPhone 5 is commanding very high prices, according to stories from near the device’s launch. It was reportedly selling for around 3,000 HKD more than retail, or nearly $ 400 U.S., at launch. That kind of market has resulted in Apple implementing special measures in China to try to curb the problem, but so far, that’s not really having much effect on stemming the tide of illegal goods crossing the border.
Apple has just announced that the iPad mini and 4th generation iPad, both of which debuted on October 23 in San Francisco, have just topped 3 million sales in 3 days.
The smaller, lighter tablet had been rumored for years, yet its arrival was somewhat overshadowed by Hurricane Sandy devastating the North East. And the 4th gen iPad came as a bit of a surprise, though it was also rumored prior to launch.
On the November 2 launch date, a week after pre-orders began, lines weren’t quite as long as they have been for other Apple products, despite having two new models on sale.
Still, Apple has managed to sell a whopping 3 million of both devices in a very short period of time. For reference, Asus has said that the company sells around 1 million Nexus 7 tablets per month.
At the same time, this isn’t exactly the level of opening day, weekend, or week sales we usually see out of Apple. Apple’s 3rd generation iPad, however, sold 3 million on its own during its opening weekend last March, so this time around two separate device lines are splitting the same number of sales. The iPhone 5 had 2 million pre-orders in 24 hours, and sold 5 million in the first weekend.
Apple likely won’t break out sales by device type, but we’ll see if analysts or supply chain information provides a better breakdown.
With Apple just ending its conference call for its quarterly results, Strategy Analytics has published its numbers on global tablet sales for the quarter. Apple and the iPad remain in the lead with 57% of all shipments, but just as Apple missed sales expectations on the iPad, it also is losing some market share in the tablet market overall, with Android picking up the slack to reach an all-time high of 41% of shipments on overall shipments of just under 25 million units.
Strategy Analytics says that shipments were up by 43% on the same quarter a year ago, when they totaled 17.2 million. That’s not actually as impressive as it might sound. The year before, they were up by 289% compared to 2011 annually in Q2 2011. In fact, this is the slowest growth rate Strategy Analytics has seen; it started marking numbers in Q2 2010.
Although Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s forked-Android tablets have been creating a lot of buzz, Strategy Analytics notes that anticipation for a new iPad model — which in fact was only announced this week — cooled buying somewhat. The other major factor is lingering economic uncertainty, which is impacting consumer spending for more than just tablets.
“Demand for tablets slowed due to ongoing economic uncertainty and consumers holding off purchases in anticipation of multiple new models, like the iPad Mini, during the upcoming Q4 holiday season,” writes Peter King, Director at Strategy Analytics.
Strategy Analytics calls Apple’s 14 million iPad shipment for the quarter “disappointing”. It’s also a clear decline of 7% on the same quarter a year ago. And because the tablet market, even more than the smartphone market, has been a two-horse race when it comes to platforms, Apple’s loss has been Android’s gain. “Apple’s slowdown allowed the Android community to make gains,” King writes.
Android’s 41% this quarter (10.2 million units shipped, double the number last year) is a big leap from the 29% share it had a year ago.
And as it was the case in the earlier days of smartphones, there was no single vendor on Android that is coming close to Apple in terms of volumes, points out Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics.
The jury still out on whether Samsung will be able to repeat its eventual domination in tablets as it has in smartphones, especially since Amazon is now shipping its tablets globally, and Asus is behind the Nexus 7.
That could all change in the next couple of quarters, with the introduction of Windows 8 — although as it does in smartphones, Microsoft has a long way to go. SA notes that in this last quarter, shipments of Microsoft-powered tablets accounted for only 2% of the global total.
Strategy Analytics notes that these numbers are for tablets-only and not e-book readers.
BBC’s iPlayer for iOS has received an update that should make owner’s of Apple’s third-generation iPad rather happy. In addition to improving overall performance and adding more VoiceOver controls, the popular streaming app now delivers video and graphics worthy of the tablet’s Retina display. This particular update only affects the UK version of the app, although iMore expects that the improvements should hit the global version of iPlayer in the near future. The free app can be downloaded now for subscribers that want access to the last seven days of BBC’s television and radio programs through their iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
Apple managed to move a lot of iDevices over the last three months. The company just reported its third quarter financials and detailed iPhone, iPod, and iPad unit sales. The iPad saw a killer quarter with sales up from 11.8M units in Q2 to 17M in Q3. That said, the iPhone didn’t fare as well. The company shipped 26M down from 35.1M last quarter but up 28% from last year’s third quarter.
These numbers are mostly in line with analyst’s predictions who estimated that iPhone sales would decline while the iPad would see substantial growth. Apple actually managed to move fewer iPhones than expected with most analysts expecting sales numbers to hit between 29M and 31M.
The decline in iPhone sales is an important factor since that unit accounts for the bulk of AAPL’s revenue and profits. iPhone unit sales fell quarter-over-quarter for the first time since Q4 2011. iPhone sales declined 9.1M units, or rather 26%, over the previous quarter. This decline could be attributed to the iPhone 4/4S’ age when compared to new Android flagship models.
The iPad had a great last few months. Apple moved 17M units during the third quarter. Sales were up 44% over Apple’s second quarter and a whopping 84% year-over-year.
The iPod is slowly drifting into obscurity though. Sales are down nearly 10% from last year and 12% from over the last quarter. With a total sales of 6.8M units, it’s still likely the best-selling MP3/MP4 player on the market, but it’s quickly becoming a niche product. Apple’s senior vice president and Chief Financial Officer confirmed this thought during Apple’s financial call today, indicating that the iPad still holds 70% of the market.
Apple’s Macintosh sales fell short of analyst’s predictions, with only 4M units sold. This during a quarter that saw a significant model introduction with the MacBook Pro with Retina Display. However, the model’s supply levels have been limited, likely justifying the lower numbers sold.
Developing…
Qantas just upped the ante for its Australian nemeses Jetstar and Virgin in the airline tablet wars. Following an earlier trial, the transporter plans to hand out free iPads to all of its passengers — not just the high-flyers in business-class, like with Jetstar’s iPads or Virgin’s Galaxy Tabs — on every Boeing 767 aircraft in the fleet. The rollout, which starts in the last quarter of the year, will let those bored in the back seats watch an equally free 200 hours’ worth of QStreaming audio and video. Don’t confuse the gesture with a sudden bout of altruism on Qantas’ part, however. The pound-and-a-half weight of a current iPad sheds the tremendous amount of weight that would normally be needed for a conventional in-flight entertainment system built into the headrest, which on a typical 375-seat 767 could see the iPads pay for themselves within years, if not sooner. The option will give many Aussies something to look forward to for their domestic summer vacations. In the meantime, hop past the break for a Qantas video explaining how QStreaming worked during the original trial run.
Filed under: Tablet PCs, Transportation
Qantas to hand out free iPads to all passengers on Boeing 767s, save fuel and our sanity (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 15:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Related Posts:
The new iPad launches in China this Friday, July 20th. Big crowds are expected. But Apple is using a reservation lottery service to allow buyers to essentially reserve their place in line now. Interested buyers simply need to go to this page, select a version of the iPad and provide their government ID. After that, a lottery-like system will notify the lucky few.
But this isn’t just about reducing the size of the crowds and improving customer satisfaction. Apple is using this system to fight scalpers and scammers.
In the past scalpers would try to turn a profit by getting in line early, buying an iDevice and then reselling the product at a higher cost to someone in line. Of course Apple frowns upon this practice. Not only is it a bit unsavory, there’s a high chance that buyers can be scammed with a fake iPad- it’s happened before. Unscrupulous dealers are also known to try to scoop up as many units as possible and then resell them at a higher cost.
As M.I.C. Gadgets reminds, Apple previously used this same lottery system for the iPhone’s Hong Kong launch. Apparently it worked to some degree of satisfaction. It’s nigh impossible to stop all the scammers, but this system seems fair enough to the early adopters while providing enough protection against the baddies.
Good luck! May the odds ever be in your favor.
The retail world of consumer electronics is a tough game, with a lot of the traditional bricks-and-mortar trade continually pushing online to compete against the likes of Amazon and eBay for consumers that prefer to get a wider selection for cheaper prices to seeing the products in action before purchasing. A startup called YBUY is trying to turn that ecommerce model on its head, by offering a kind of extended lease service to online buyers, giving them the chance to try out gadgets at home before closing the deal. With daily new sign-ups registering around 2,000 at the moment, today YBUY is announcing it’s picked up $ 1 million in Series A funding from Google Chairman Eric Schmidt’s investment firm Tomorrow Ventures. YBUY says that the money will be used mainly to help it continue growing its business, which has had a strong response since launching at the end of 2011. Currently it has a waiting list of nearly 50,000 people to use the service — so most immediately it is gradually opening up the service to them.
The concept behind YBUY is fairly straightforward: for a flat fee of $ 24.95 per month, it offers a selection of consumer electronics and kitchen gadgets — both new and refurbished — giving users the option of getting them for 30-day testing periods before actually agreeing to buy them. YBUY pays for all the postage and packaging to send you the product and get it back if you don’t want to keep it.
Stephen Svajian, the founder and CEO, tells me that the product selection is pretty varied: it ranges from iPad tablets to Jawbone and Breville kitchen products. But it also features products from Kickstarter campaigns. The idea is curating and aggregating the best and becoming an alternative to, say, a Google product search. “We only represent what we think is the best product in a particular category,” he tells me. “We do a lot of the work [looking for them] the online shopper would typically do.”
YBUY is not yet disclosing its total number of customers or tunrover but says that it’s been growing 25 percent month-on-month, and as an example created 2,000 accounts yesterday. Svajian says that in customer interviews, the main reasons for going for YBUY over something like Amazon are multiple. For one, there is the issue of financial commitment. Even if sites today have good return policies, “They don’t like to see the $ 600 leave their bank account on something they’re not sure about.” Then there is the issue of returns: these can be a hassle, but YBUY encloses return packaging with each product. The third reason is a bit of a surprise: “They feel bad,” he says. Apparently there is a kind of stigma or guilt around returning products that keeps people from doing it, whereas here it’s built into the business model, almost being encouraged. There is also the issue of trust: online there is a bit of a worry that people will never get all their money back in return situation.
Although YBUY bills monthly, Svajian says he doesn’t put itself into the category of “subscription e-commerce.” That’s because they are getting ready to introduce another model as well:
“We felt it would be useful to have a subscription early on to drive engagement and to be able to run experiments to track against different months,” he says. But in the next few months, the company will be rolling out a different option for customers. “They’ll be able to choose whether to bill monthly or just get billed when they receive a product. We’re big believers in one, single experience for customers and our customer interviews have told us they want this model, but we’d like to see the data before we commit to just one option.”
If there is a comparison between YBUY and another business, it might be Costco, where YBUY appeals to the discover/demand driver, and Costco to discounts. “We’re both a membership club with a disruptive distribution channel that delivers long-term value to customers,” he notes, but adds: “It’s strange thinking about us like Costco, because we just give you cool stuff and Costco gives you cheap stuff, but I think our manner of disruption will be similar and we’re focused on the long-term.”
What’s perhaps most compelling is that as the service continues to grow, it’s actually making better and better margins on the service. In December, he says, they were losing $ 50 per customer. Now they are making around $ 35 per customer, with the value per customer at $ 450, with the profitability per customer ranging between 25% and 50%.
In terms of partnerships, YBUY currently has no plans to do any white-label agreements with brands to offer this kind of leasing service on their behalf, or for any other e-commerce sites that want to introduce this kind of service into the purchasing mix. And Svajian says that he is reluctant to make direct deals with manufacturers full stop, even for promoting on their own site: “We’ve done a deal with a manufacturer and we’re reluctant to do that again. We think its more important to have integrity around the process. If we are paid by the manufacturers to slot their products, then that detracts from our value prop to customers – to get them the best stuff. We need to be rabid about the value we deliver to customers and we don’t want anything to get in the way of that.”
The whole try-before-you-buy space is pretty nascent at this stage but we are seeing others moving here, too. Warby Parker is doing it with eyewear; and Trunk Club’s applying it to fashion, among others. On that trend, Svajian is adamant that it’s not just a fad but something that speaks to what customers are actually needing today: “This isn’t disruption for disruption’s sake. Rather, it’s important to note that this disruption is being driven by the customer. Customers want to try before they buy. The consumer will drive the push into this model.” For now that will keep YBUY in the U.S. with international growth somewhere down the line.
Svajian is a lawyer by training but has been a serial entrepreneur, with YBUY being his fourth company. Jim Patterson, the Yammer chief product officer, has been a partner in two of them — in addition to being an angel investor in YBUY. One of them, AudioCaseFiles, targeting the legal market, sold for a 10x return for its investors when it was sold to Courtroom Connect.
Other angel investors, in addition to Patterson, in this Series A round include David Hanna, Chairman and CEO of CompuCredit Corporation.
Question by Robert B: How many contacts can be stored on ipad’s Contacts feature? I have about 4,000 contacts on my computer that I would like to bring over to my ipad Contacts feature. Does anyone know how many contacts can be stored on the program?
Best answer:
Answer by shyazulianguyWell i am pretty sure you can only do up to 5000 unique name entries.
Add your own answer in the comments!
Related Posts: