Apple's iPad is the hotcake of the 21st century
Set to become fastest-selling non-phone tech device ever
The iPad is set to become the fastest ever selling electronic device, according to estimates by US investment analysts.
Retail analysts at Bernstein Research have apparently declared that iPad sales' rates - 4.5 million units per quarter - have surpassed that of the DVD, previously the fastest adopted non-phone technology, according to CNBC.
It quotes Bernstein's retail analyst, Colin McGranahan, writing: “The iPad did not seem destined to be a runaway product success straight out of the box... By any account, the iPad is a runaway success of unprecedented proportion."
If it was to continue this rate, apparently, the iPad would surpass gaming hardware and cellular phones to become the fourth biggest electronics category, after TVs, smart phones and notebook PCs.
The report is likely to restart the debate about whether or not the iPad is cannibalising notebook PC sales. McGranahan made his comments on a report about US mega retailer Best Buy, whose CEO was forced to clarify previous remarks about the iPad blasting notebooks out of the water.
Perhaps this is one reason to be a little bit cautious about how quickly the iPad will take over the entire world. We're talking about one segment of the US consumer market, which really consists of just one vendor.
It's also worth noting that DVDs came down in price reasonably rapidly - and Apple has never really embraced the pile em high, sell em cheap approach.
And, of course, the last thing Apple would want is for every every Tom, Dick or Harry to be walking around clutching its fondle slabs. And there were many vendors of the DVD format. There is, of course, only one vendor of the iPad, and its rivals are prepping their own tablets. Whether the world will take the new kids on the block to their hearts is another matter. ®
COMMENTS
Its odd
I recently bought an iPad and an AlienWare M15X within weeks of each other.
I'm no Apple Fanboi, but I've found myself picking up and using the iPad WAY MORE than the Alienware. Don't know why, its just so easy to pickupandplay. Meanwhile my Alienware takes a couple of mins to boot, fails to recognise my face regularly (AlienSense) and has an utterly terrible trackpad, leaving me to plug in the mouse.
Meanwhile the iPad allows very capable browsing without being inundated with poorly constructed Flash ads (sure I miss some of the decent flash stuffs) allows me to purchase items on Amazon, play.com etc. with ease, check balances and so forth, and has a decent set of card games enough to keep me entertained, so well entertained in fact that StarCraft 2 rarely gets a look-in.
Of course I bought the Alienware to perform as a 'pro' gaming platform so I suppose its my fault I'm not into PC gaming right now, NFS Shift on the iPad is keeping me going pretty well despite its apparent unsophistication in relation to the PC version, but in general home computing use, the iPad is getting a much better look-in!
I do, however miss the ability to play my library of vids on my NAS box upstairs - but I just need to set up a media transcoder server for that and use AirVideo or something.
All in all, I'd definitely say its likely to eat into the laptop market somewhat (I know not in my case what with the Alienware!). Just why the hell should us IT Pros slave over a hot server all day and come home to more moaning misbehaving Windows PCs? The iPad allows easy computing just when you really need it!
(Going anon cos of all the Apple h8rz on here!)
Apple have shown their rivals how it's done.
Now it's up to said rivals to copy Apple (again) and create the Windows of the tablet format. Android is likely to be involved somewhere.
Consider that the iPhone has spawned umpteen imitators of shockingly variable quality, and those *are* selling. Rather well, in fact. Apple are unlikely to mind too much. They'll grunt and make snide remarks about their rivals standing by with their photocopiers, but this is ultimately what Apple *want*. By flattering Apple with endless imitations, these rivals are vindicating Apple's decisions. Apple will be, once more, seen as the leader, the trend-setter, the maven of IT chic.
For a design boutique like Apple, that kind of publicity is *priceless*.
It'll be the same with the iPad. Apple will lead for a while. Some rival devices will even be *technically* superior. But as long as Apple don't drop their design ball, their kit will remain the aspirational choice. Not because of the alphabet soup of components inside the device, but because of the way that soup has been *cooked*.
Some day, Apple's rivals will finally *get* this, and stop handing Big Fruit success after success on a fucking *plate*. Apple aren't doing well because they're run by some magical man made entirely of fried awesome. They're just doing it *right*. It's not rocket science. There are books on this shit and everything.
Apple are doing well because *every last one* of their rivals appears to be run by feckless imbeciles who wouldn't recognise a clue if it jumped up and down on their heads, waving signed photographs of Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and the entire cast and crew of all three CSI franchises.
I mean, seriously, how the HELL did a 20-year-veteran of the mobile phone industry like Nokia, NOT come up with the iPhone *first*?
got to love statistics
Completely ignoring the size of the target market.
Just because you have sales in one quarter, it doesn't mean you'll have the same sales in the next. Especially for something high end like this.
2 quarters is hardly enough time to get meaningful statistics.
Archos? Who?
Whilst you and I might know who Archos are and you might even have purchased some of their products (I most certainly haven't as they are ugly, geek accessories, seemingly designed by the blind for those stylistically challenged folk and presumably people on benefits ), in the general public's view they were completely irrelevent and I would imagine this extends to most analysts. They might as well not have existed. Nobody cares about them and nobody cares about Windows Tablets anymore.
MS had the tech and the OEM's did precisely nothing to make them attractive in terms of cost, portability etc. over the course of many many years. They had their chance and they blew it. By stark contrast, Apple's entry has taken the world by storm selling out everywhere, and this is their first attempt. Give them some credit here, you petty little pedant. Their flair and skill was to take an item that most people couldn't even work out whether a market existed for it, packaging it and its features in a way which would sell to ordinary people. i.e. they knew what people wanted but which historically the PC industry has monumentally failed at providing: A user friendly, simple-to-use-without-an-IT-degree, portable computer with long battery life which is nearly impossible to crash/break without the worry of conventional viruses
This article contains a fair amount of shilling but nothing more than I would expect from financial analysts, regardless of any input or agenda from Apple. The hilarity is that you seem to think that people need to be paid to rave about the iPad/iPhone et al. The products speak for themselves, its amusing that still you and your kind do not understand this.
Pardon
Like they took to all the 'iPod Killers' in the past you mean?
