Roku just announced via its blog that it has sold 5 million of its streaming Internet media players since its launch back in 2008. The devices have managed to stream a total of 8 billion pieces of content in that time, impressive for a device that started out as essentially a dedicated Netflix box. Roku recently introduced its third-generation hardware to market with the Roku 3, which went on sale in March.
The milestone is significant, since it indicates that there’s a very real and growing market out there for a device that essentially just acts as a service layer for bringing web-based content to televisions, independent of what TV manufacturers themselves are doing with their own built-in Smart TV services. Roku announced that it reached 2.5 million streaming devices in sales back in January of 2012, after having sold 1.5 million during all of 2011. That means it managed to sell somewhere close to 2.5 million devices in the U.S. between then and now, which is a marked increase from its previous yearly high.
We’ve seen how this 5 million milestone compares with Roku’s performance to date, but how about vs. the rest of the market? Despite the fact that Apple still isn’t driving massive amounts of sales with its Apple TV products (especially when compared to its iOS devices), it still sold 2 million in total during the holiday quarter last year, up from 1.3 million in the quarter before that, and up from 1.4 million year over year.
Apple’s sale totals are global, but that still adds up to more than 10 million sales since the device’s introduction, and it sold as many devices as the Roku did in a whole year at home in the U.S. in a single quarter. Still, for a company without Apple’s marketing clout and ecosystem of devices, Roku is definitely holding its own.
The Roku 3 is receiving high praise so far, and has simplified things on the product side, as well as narrowed Roku’s product line to a single device, which is probably best in terms of helping it focus its marketing efforts and avoid consumer confusion. But it will face new competition from Panasonic, which introduced two new streaming media players this week, both of which plug into the popular new Miracast tech, essentially AirPlay for Android, being built into many of today’s smartphones.
Google began directing customers looking for the Nexus 4 in the U.S. to T-Mobile this morning, since Google itself hasn’t had stock for quite a while now. The search giant was advertising a special offer, whereby T-Mobile customers could get the Nexus 4 for $ 199 on a 2-year contract, after a $ 50 mail-in rebate. That’s still not nearly as good a deal as the $ 300 Google was charging off-contract, but people apparently didn’t care that much, because T-Mobile is now sold out only hours after Google started pointing shoppers in T-Mobile’s direction.
The Nexus 4 seemed to be a hot seller initially, with Google selling out of the handset in markets around the world within hours or even minutes (a friend joked that I must have been one of 15 who got in under the wire for Canadian pre-orders). The smartphone is Google’s latest Android reference device, meaning it carries stock Android 4.2, and will always be first in line for future updates, regardless of carrier. The phone is made by OEM partner LG and shares many of its internal specs with the Optimus G, save for the absence of LTE connectivity. Its shared internals with LG’s own branded phone, which could very well bring in higher margins, might have something to do with its stock scarcity.
Google likely didn’t anticipate the kind of demand that the Nexus 4 is seeing, hence the global stock shortage. In fact, one of its execs even said in a recent interview it doesn’t expect Nexus devices to be top-selling Android handsets. But it’s interesting to see the company have to direct users to carrier stores, and away from its own Play device marketplace, if only because Google’s attempts to sell hardware directly to consumers haven’t gone swimmingly in the past. In fact, many pointed fingers directly at the carriers as the cause of problems when Google’s initial attempt to sell Nexus devices (specifically, the Nexus One) directly via its online store.
This time around, the price and other conditions appear to be right. Now all Google has to do is keep the thing in stock somewhere, hopefully in time to satisfy hungry holiday shoppers.
Just hours after Samsung’s Korean arm remarked on the sales of its Galaxy Note II, Samsung Poland jumped into the act confirming the Galaxy S III has moved 30 million units. We don’t know if the celebration included taking a victory lap going the wrong way, but the figure is the highest announced for a phone in the series, after the original Galaxy S topped 10 million in 2011, and the Galaxy S II breached 20 million earlier this year. The line has even spawned spinoffs like the aforementioned Note and upcoming Galaxy S III mini, all while showing no sign of slowing any time soon — lawsuit or not.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung
Samsung’s Galaxy S III crosses 30 million sold originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Nov 2012 21:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Microsoft’s initial stock of Surface RT devices has sold out in the United States. The 32GB base model, at $ 499, sold out earlier in the week, but all stock has now been depleted with a wait time of within three weeks rather than a guaranteed October 26th delivery. Alongside the sell out, a number of UK readers are reporting that Microsoft has delayed the release of Surface by a week.
“The release date for the preorder product has changed,” reads an email sent to some buyers who pre-ordered a Surface in the UK. “The product listed below will now be available on 02 November 2012.” It’s not clear from Microsoft why the Surface is delayed in the UK, but we understand from sources that it could be due to units being held by UK customs….
Question by : How to get twitter off a sold ipad without getting on it? I sold my ipad to someone and I forgot to delete my twitter and skype off of it, how would I get it off without contacting her? Could i change the username or password? Would that stop her from getting my notifacations?
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Answer by Ash LanierYesssss. You could change the username and password of course
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LTE handsets? Sprint’s got ‘em. And while the carrier’s network deployment may be, well, a bit lacking at present, plenty of Now Network subscribers have been happy to pick up devices boasting the speedy technology. Speaking at a conference in New York, CEO Dan Hesse noted that Sprint has moved some one million LTE devices — a number that’s likely to keep growing, as the carrier continues to roll out coverage.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Sprint marks one million LTE devices sold originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 11:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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New Kindles are coming! New Kindles are coming! And Amazon is trying its hardest to build up hype.
The Kindle Fire was the retailer’s hottest product since its launch. The replacement is set be announced next week, but Amazon just took to the wires to announce the original Kindle Fire is sold out. OMGNOWAY!
It’s nearly guaranteed that Amazon will launch new Kindle models next week at its LA-based press conference. New ereader Kindles are expected alongside new Fire models. It should be a good showing by Amazon, but there is a lot of noise in this space now. A boat load of tablets launched at IFA the last few days and Apple is expected to release a Kindle Fire competitor in the coming weeks as well.
Amazon is clearly desperate for attention. And so, just like the, days before the announcement of the next model, Amazon is suddenly out of stock of its best selling item — and quickly issued a press release bragging as such.
SEATTLE—August 30, 2012—(NASDAQ: AMZN)—Less than one year ago, Amazon introduced Kindle Fire —combining 15 years of innovation into a single, fully-integrated, end-to-end service for customers. Kindle Fire quickly became the most successful product launch in the history of Amazon.com, earning over 10,000 5-star customer reviews, and is the #1 best-selling product across the millions of items available on Amazon since its introduction 48 weeks ago. Today, Amazon announced that Kindle Fire is sold out, and that in just nine months, Kindle Fire has captured 22% of tablet sales in the U.S.
“We’re grateful to the millions of customers who have made Kindle Fire the most successful product launch in the history of Amazon,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “This has been a big year for digital products on Amazon—all of the top 10 sellers on Amazon.com since Kindle Fire launched just less than a year ago are digital products. Kindle Fire is sold out, but we have an exciting roadmap ahead—we will continue to offer our customers the best hardware, the best prices, the best customer service, the best cross-platform interoperability, and the best content ecosystem.”
Kindle Fire offers customers a vast selection of digital content—over 22 million movies, TV shows, apps, games, books, magazines and more—in one seamless, end-to-end experience, making it easy for customers to browse, discover and purchase. Since Kindle Fire launched last September, all of the top 10 products on Amazon—across all products—are digital products.
Faced with a dire financial situation, OnLive is been sold to another company that will do business under the name OnLive. Because the move is an “Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors,” wrote Jane Anderson, the new OnLive PR rep, “Unfortunately neither OnLive, Inc. shares nor OnLive staff could transfer under this type of transaction, but almost half of OnLive’s staff were given employment offers by the new company at their current salaries immediately upon the transfer, and the non-hired staff will be given offers to do consulting in return for options in the new company.”
In short, the company closed up shop and sold itself without the baggage of employees or former stock options. The new company will run just the same as the old company with no visible changes to the user. Anderson called the firing of current employees a “heartbreaking transition” and that rumors of Steve Perlman cashing out of the old company were not true. Instead, Perlman is losing his stock options and C-level execs are “receiving reduced compensation.”
The OnLive® Game and Desktop Services, all OnLive Devices and Apps, as well as all OnLive partnerships, are expected to continue without interruption and all customer purchases will remain intact; users are not expected to notice any change whatsoever. OnLive’s current initiatives will continue as well, with major announcements of new products and services planned in the coming weeks and months. An affiliate of Lauder Partners was the first investor in the newly-structured company, holding the view that OnLive is the future of computing and entertainment, and a passion to see OnLive’s breakthrough technology continue to grow and evolve. The new company structure enables OnLive to do so.OnLive, Inc.’s board of directors, faced with difficult financial decisions for OnLive, Inc., determined that the best course of action was a restructuring under an “Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors.” The assignee of the company’s assets then sold all of OnLive, Inc.’s assets (including its technology, intellectual property, etc.) to the new company. … Upon closing additional funding, the company plans to hire more staff, both former OnLive employees as well as new employees.
Here’s a quick Q&A from OnLive about the transaction.
Q. Will users see any change in the OnLive Game or Desktop Services? What about their purchases?A. Users should see no change in the OnLive Game or Desktop Services. All of their purchases remain intact and available. OnLive has been up 24/7 since launch over two years ago and expects to remain so. OnLive has over 2.5 million subscribers, with an active base of over 1.5 million subscribers, connecting from a vast range of devices and networks, with many sessions running for hours. The user base is growing rapidly with OnLive’s addition into recently announced devices and TVs from major manufacturers. We expect this growth to continue under the new company.
Q. Is there any cash or stock in the new company provided for any OnLive, Inc. shares?
A. Unfortunately not. The nature of the transaction is such that only assets, not shares, were purchased. This is true for all shares of OnLive, Inc., whether held by investors, employees or executives.
Q. Did Steve Perlman receive stock or compensation in this transaction?
A. Like all shareholders, neither Steve nor any of his companies received any stock in the new company or compensation in this transaction at all. Steve is receiving no compensation whatsoever and most execs are receiving reduced compensation to allow the company to hire as many employees as possible within the current budget.
Q. Did all OnLive, Inc. assets transfer into the new company? Are any assets held by any other party?
A. All of OnLive, Inc.’s assets (e.g. technology, patents, trademarks, etc.) were transferred to an assignee, which then sold the assets to the new company. There was no transfer to any other party.
Q. Have OnLive, Inc. employees been offered positions in the new company?
A. Almost half of OnLive’s staff were offered employment at their current salaries in the new company immediately upon the transfer, and the non-hired staff will be given offers to do consulting in return for options in the new company. Upon closing additional funding, the company plans to hire more staff, both former OnLive employees as well as new employees.
One of the strong points in Apple’s quarterly earnings report yesterday was sales of the iPad. Globally, they were up 52% by revenue and 84% by unit sales, respectively to $ 9 billion and 17 million. In some new figures out today, Strategy Analytics notes that this translates to an increase in overall tablet market share for the company: Apple now controls 68.3% of the market, compared to 62% in Q2 a year ago, in an overall tablet market that saw shipments of 24.9 million units. So much for analyst predictions: here’s one (of several) that had forecast a decline in Apple’s market share.
So why the reversal? It looks like the competition that many had been expecting to give Apple a run for its money has failed to materialize. But while Apple’s market share is the best it’s been in years, Strategy Analytics also cautions that overall the market has also witnessed its slowest growth rate since the first iPad launched in Q2 2010, a result of a slowdown in the global economy, it says.
Microsoft, which will be releasing a new tablet-friendly OS in the form of Windows 8 later this year, has lost nearly 3% market share, according to figures from Strategy Analytics.
Collectively, all of the others (that would be PlayBook, primarily) have lost 3.5%.
And Android, meanwhile, has grown the number of units it has sold to 7.3 million compared to 4.4 million in 2011; but in the wider tablet market, that has only kept its market share level at 29.3%.
“Despite high expectations for companies like Amazon, Samsung, Acer and Asus, the Android community has yet to make a serious dent in Apple’s dominance of the tablet market,” said analyst Neil Mawston. “Unspectacular hardware designs, limited uptake of cellular models and a modest number of tablet-optimized services have been among some of the main reasons for Android’s mixed performance so far.” Whether a more comprehensive global rollout from Amazon, and the launch of more models, will turn that around remains to be seen.
In fact, Apple’s iPad share is not only going up; it’s the best it’s been in years — since Q3 2010, according to Peter King, a director at the analyst firm. The 24.9 million units sold works out to growth of 67% compared to the 14.9 million units shipped a year ago.
Analysts have been sharply divided in providing estimates for Apple’s third quarter earnings report. And it would appear that this time, predictions of a mild third quarter were correct. Apple saw a bit of a plateau in Mac sales, with 4 million Macs, 26 million iPhones, and 17 million iPads sold in Q3 2012. That’s compared to last quarter’s sales of 4 million Macs, 35.1 million iPhones, and 11.8 million iPads.
The main question was whether or not Apple’s MacBook Pro Retina would pick up declining Mac sales. As you can see from the numbers, it appears that 5.1 million pixels does not a spike in sales make, as this represents only a 2 percent increase in sales over the year-ago quarter. At the same time, the Retina MBP was only available for a short portion of the quarter being reported, so it’s possible we’ll see a spike in Q4.
On the earnings call, Tim Cook explained that the slowed growth in Mac sales has a lot to do with the timing of their portable announcement this year. It only left a few weeks for buyers to enjoy the new models, as opposed to the February announcement last year.
We pulled together professional estimates of 68 Apple analysts, as compiled by Fortune, who said that Apple would sell around 4.4 million Macs, 29 million iPhones and 15.7 million iPads.
As you can see, iPhone sales are down slightly from Q2 (and 3 million short of analyst expectations), while Mac sales stayed almost exactly the same as last quarter. If you remember, Q2′s 4 million Macs sold was down about 1 million units from the first quarter.
But after spending a full quarter on the market, the iPad is selling quite well, with 17 million units sold this quarter. That’s a whopping 84 percent increase from the same quarter last year, and a 5.2 million unit gain over last quarter.
Analysts also expected iPod sales figures to go down from last quarter’s 7.7 million, which is to be expected outside of gift-buying season. On this point, as well, they were right. Apple sold 6.8 million iPods in Q3 2012, a 10 percent unit decrease from last year.
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