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Steve Jobs Wasn't Lying: Apple's iPad Market Share Was Really More Than 90% Last Year
Business Insider ^ | March 7, 2011 | Sammy the Walrus IV

Posted on 03/07/2011 6:07:21 PM PST by Swordmaker

Ever since Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad 2, people have busy trying to compare his statements to the truth, especially this one: 

“Many have said (iPad) is the most successful consumer product ever launched. Over 90% market share and our competitors were flummoxed.”

Where was Steve getting this 90% market share data point? Strategy Analytics showed iPad’s market share at 75% in 4Q10 and falling fast. 

The thing about Steve Jobs is that he rarely outright lies, instead opting to look at data in a way that he thinks makes most sense and which contains some shred of validity.  I don’t think Steve was far off from the truth saying iPad had 90% market share. Using conservative figures and assumptions, I calculate iPad’s tablet market share at 90% in 4Q10, and nearly 95% for 2010. 

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: ispam; spam; spammer
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To: Swordmaker
> the iPad did take better than 90% of the tablet market in 4Q2010

Of course, "taking" 90% of a market is a different achievement from "expanding" a market to 1000% of its prior size, which is more what Apple did here.

That is, if the prior-to-iPad market was 100 units, and the iPad sold 900 units, then Apple has 90% of the resulting market -- yet they haven't taken a single unit away from the prior number.

I'm only quibbling about the word "take". What Apple did was expand the market by about a factor of 10.

IMO, sales market percentages are among some of the most awful, misleading, and pointless statistics in existence. They have to be treated with suspicion. :)

21 posted on 03/07/2011 7:05:30 PM PST by dayglored (Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!)
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To: Swordmaker

It seems like yesterday that the Apple naysayers were laughing at the name iPad, saying it sounds like a sanitary napkin. They said there was no market for a product that is between a smartphone and a laptop but is neither. As usual Apple proved them wrong by reawakening a dead concept by improving it and making it attractive, fun, and full of unrealized uses.

They aren’t through, either.


22 posted on 03/07/2011 7:07:41 PM PST by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done needs to be done by the government!)
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To: Jonty30

RE: But it won’t be in a couple of years, once the Android market ramps up.

And besides quality, that is why Apple continues to win. When the non-Apples produce their Zunes, android phones (which suck compared to the iPhone...I’ve had both) and stink pads Apple will already be creating another market with something else.

You can’t win when you are on continually on the defense.


23 posted on 03/07/2011 7:13:59 PM PST by big'ol_freeper ("[T]here is nothing so aggravating [in life] as being condescended to by an idiot" ~ Ann Coulter)
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To: Swordmaker

I’m just saying thet Apple is a cult and Jobs is the high priest who, like his fanatics will do and say anything to protect their “religious artifacts”...


24 posted on 03/07/2011 7:16:01 PM PST by TomServo
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To: Swordmaker

Depends on how you define the specific market, no?


25 posted on 03/07/2011 7:17:38 PM PST by meyer (We will not sit down and shut up.)
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To: Swordmaker
P.S...but they make great toys...:-)
26 posted on 03/07/2011 7:18:10 PM PST by TomServo
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To: TomServo
I’m just saying thet Apple is a cult and Jobs is the high priest who, like his fanatics will do and say anything to protect their “religious artifacts”...

Thank you for your opinion. It, as usual, is of the stink bomb variety.

27 posted on 03/07/2011 7:20:00 PM PST by Swordmaker (This tag line is a Microsoft product "insult" free zone.)
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To: Swordmaker
“Many have said (iPad) is the most successful consumer product ever launched"

These numbers are for "consumer products" Most if not all the major competitors have both a consumer and business lines of products. I ate at a restaurant that used HP iPAQ Pocket PC a few years back to take orders. It was not a "consumer market" device. Before the iPad there wasn't much of a "consumer market" for the product.

28 posted on 03/07/2011 7:20:42 PM PST by ThomasThomas (it said the speeling was OK)
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To: Swordmaker
“Many have said (iPad) is the most successful consumer product ever launched"

These numbers are for "consumer products" Most if not all the major competitors have both a consumer and business lines of products. I ate at a restaurant that used HP iPAQ Pocket PC a few years back to take orders. It was not a "consumer market" device. Before the iPad there wasn't much of a "consumer market" for the product.

29 posted on 03/07/2011 7:20:56 PM PST by ThomasThomas (it said the speeling was OK)
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To: TomServo
P.S...but they make great toys...:-)

Better...

30 posted on 03/07/2011 7:20:56 PM PST by Swordmaker (This tag line is a Microsoft product "insult" free zone.)
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To: Jonty30

I think Ipad has the market for the time being. They’ve got the best product, best software and best word of mouth. And now the Ipad 2 looks to have fixed the flaws of the first model.

The schools are starting to adopt it as the standard as are a number of businesses.

The problem with Macs not catching on was because the price was higher and the businesses wouldn’t adopt. Here the Ipad price seems right on the money for this type of device and the large users are adopting it quickly. I do see this more like the MP3 situation from 8-10 years ago where the Ipod took over the category versus the Mac/PC competition of the last 25-years.


31 posted on 03/07/2011 7:21:59 PM PST by SteveAustin
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To: ThomasThomas
These numbers are for "consumer products" Most if not all the major competitors have both a consumer and business lines of products. I ate at a restaurant that used HP iPAQ Pocket PC a few years back to take orders. It was not a "consumer market" device. Before the iPad there wasn't much of a "consumer market" for the product.

Uh, an article I just read said that a large percentage of the iPads sold were sold to government and Enterprise ... that makes them not consumer products... the iPad is a business tool now, as well as a consumer device. Better than 80% of the fortune 500 are either deploying them or piloting programs to deploy them. Some are buying them by the thousands.

32 posted on 03/07/2011 7:23:51 PM PST by Swordmaker (This tag line is a Microsoft product "insult" free zone.)
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To: Swordmaker

Hey - don’t get me wrong...I love my iPod...really. But Apple is not to be taken seriously with the possible exception of music and graphics...


33 posted on 03/07/2011 7:30:18 PM PST by TomServo
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To: X-FID
I do like the i phone though

I just unloaded my iPhone and got a Blackberry Torch. The Torch is awesome (and I'll never have make a bleeping appointment to visit the bleeping apple store again).

34 posted on 03/07/2011 7:38:08 PM PST by Entrepreneur (In hoc signo vinces)
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To: TomServo
I’m just saying thet Apple is a cult and Jobs is the high priest who, like his fanatics will do and say anything to protect their “religious artifacts”...


35 posted on 03/07/2011 7:47:39 PM PST by Entrepreneur (In hoc signo vinces)
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To: Entrepreneur
"(and I'll never have make a bleeping appointment to visit the bleeping apple store again)."

Yep. You really fixed that one.

(Is there even a store for you to "visit" now?)

36 posted on 03/07/2011 7:52:24 PM PST by TXnMA ("Allah": Satan's current alias...)
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To: ModelBreaker
It doesn’t matter. It’s apple. It’s edgy, hip and cool.

No. It just works.
37 posted on 03/07/2011 7:54:01 PM PST by PA Engineer (Liberate America from the occupation media. There are Wars and Rumors of War.)
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To: Swordmaker
And it just works... ;^)>

Oops. You beat me.
38 posted on 03/07/2011 7:58:25 PM PST by PA Engineer (Liberate America from the occupation media. There are Wars and Rumors of War.)
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To: big'ol_freeper

The advantage Apple has in its more closed architecture is more control over what goes on the Ipad, so things do run more smoothly.

However, with the more open architacture of Android, you can have more options in the end as to what you can put on it.

It’s all in your preference.


39 posted on 03/07/2011 8:11:59 PM PST by Jonty30
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To: Jonty30
My daughter works in a book store in a medium size Cal university and she says the drop in text books sales is astonishing. The lost revenue is being partially replaced by Apple product sales including iPads...

I would love it if the tablets could eventually replace textbooks and paper.

40 posted on 03/07/2011 8:17:26 PM PST by tubebender (Now hiring Tag Line writers. Full time low pay)
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