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Android tablet revenue overtakes iPad for first time, but probably not for long

Total revenue from all Android tablets combined has for the first time exceeded Apple’s revenue for its iPad sales, according to IDC data crunched by Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty.

“For the first time,” she wrote in a note to clients Friday, “Android devices accounted for a greater share of the market in revenue terms than iOS. Android revenue share reached 46.2% in 3Q13, for the first time exceeding iPad share of 45.6%. Android’s unit share grew to 66.7% from 58.5% a year ago, largely driven by Samsung and Lenovo, while iPad share declined to 29.7% from 40.2%” … 

Huberty and IDC alike are, however, quick to observe that this is likely to change very rapidly now that the iPad Air and Retina iPad Mini are out, with IDC forecasting “robust shipment growth” this quarter.

KGI’s Ming-Chi Kuo had earlier forecast that Apple will sell a total of 36 million iPads in this quarter and next.

Via Fortune

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Comments

  1. Božidar Ševo - 11 years ago

    What about profits? Revenue doesn’t mean anything if there is no profit! ;)

  2. rogifan - 11 years ago

    Where does IDC get their figures from?

  3. Amber Johnson - 11 years ago

    picture is blurry as hell

  4. Dave Healey (@healeydave) - 11 years ago

    Just about as relevant as market share, in other words not!

    There are pieces of crap android tablets out there than can be bought for £60 in the UK.
    Even the best tablets that are not Apple’s own are either loss making or barely breaking even, so yet another person from some firm crunching numbers and making sensational headlines (to the clueless).

  5. Definitely not anything to worry about. I have literally NEVER seen anyone actively using an android tablet that wasn’t the Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire, both of which are still extraordinarily rare to see anywhere (I’ve seen a total of probably 3 or 4 of each)

    People are wanting iPads but not wanting the price tag. The result is that people are going and buying the cheap tablets as substitutions, realizing they suck, and stuffing them into a drawer to be forgotten about.

  6. pdoobs (@pdoobs) - 11 years ago

    let me guess this is another survey that doesn’t include sales from apple stores, because nobody has ever purchased an ipad from an apple store…

  7. 311sie - 11 years ago

    Who are these people and where do they use these tablets? Other than a couple (literally) of Kindle Fires, I’ve never seen an Android tablet being used outside of a BB.

    • PMZanetti - 11 years ago

      There are lots of people out there, with money to fling around, and no idea where to fling it. Statistically, these devices are sometimes purchased, but are not used. Statistically, they go in the drawer and never come out.

  8. why do we give a flying F about android vs ios? It’s really Apple vs Samsung. For the most part no one else matters in this space.

  9. Christopher Sanders - 11 years ago

    My roommate came home with an Amazon Fire and I told her that she has 30 days to find another arrangement.

  10. PMZanetti - 11 years ago

    It is mind-blowing to think that at ANY point Apple carries this much revenue share or market share, with 1 brand, 2 devices. This is compared singularly against all competing manufacturers combined…none of them (except the Nexus maker) can actually write and ship a worthwhile operating system, so they all run different operating systems that get unfairly lumped together as ‘Android’.

    • Tess - 11 years ago

      If you compared gross sales per SKU, you would conclude that Apple dominates the personal computer industry, despite the fact that 90+% of the world’s computers run the Windows platform. Both types of numbers are useful, and serve different purposes.

      And no one outside of Apple enthusiasts constructing straw men is clamoring for a dozen vendors top each come out with their own operating system, any more than people complain that most phone vendors use micro USB ports and can’t be bothered to invent their own proprietary ports and cables.

  11. chasinvictoria - 11 years ago

    While I’m not surprised that the end of the iOS cycle would be its lowest-revenue point, the story should have pointed out that IDC is not, in fact, basing this on actual reported revenues — but is guessing based on shipments, which we know for a fact to be an unreliable indicator of actual sales. IOW, while it’s possible that this report could be true, it probably isn’t.

  12. Yeah you can buy cheap tablet for €100… Its not about how many are sold, its all about web traffic … These tablets are hardly used as the performance is very disapointing

  13. giuliocc - 11 years ago

    The implication that apple is under threat would be a laugh if apple didn’t have more money than the US government. So what if apple is being outsold. Does apple need to make more money ? Happy to see competition. Would he good if we can get stats about actual usage vs raw population. We don’t know if these tablets are actually in use or not

  14. Terry Dean - 11 years ago

    So they are comparing iPad with about the sales of 100 dozen BS Android tablets that use Android for free? Give me a damn break.
    Obvious number 1:Android is a free OS
    Obvious number 2: Those cheap a** tablets cost almost nothing and mean nothing. They are tablets you’ll be able to get on black Friday for 19.99.
    I can’t believe this bs comparison!!!!

  15. Same dumb comparison as comparing Apple iPhone sales with thousand of Samsung phones. It’s about usage, not about numbers sold!!! ;) And we all know 95% of Android devices is used for only calling (when phones) and when tablet used as photo frame :D

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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