Tablet Wars: 2.5 Million iPads Sold, Xoom Sales Hit 100,000
All talk and no walk seems to be the issue Motorola is facing right now. Sales of its Xoom, which Motorola aggressively marketed as the first official Google Android Honeycomb tablet, is off to a rocky start. So far, estimates put the Xoom sales at only 100,000 sold. Compare that with the iPad 2, which is estimated to have already sold millions. Read on for a little perspective ...
April 7, 2011
All talk and no walk seems to be the issue Motorola is facing right now. Sales of its Xoom, which Motorola aggressively marketed as the first official Google Android Honeycomb tablet, is off to a rocky start. So far, estimates put the Xoom sales at only 100,000 sold. Compare that with the iPad 2, which is estimated to have already sold millions. Read on for a little perspective …
Tip of the hat goes to BusinessInsider.com for both the breakdown on the Xoom sales and the iPad 2 sales. The figures are further backed up through percentage breakdown of how many Android devices running Honeycomb are accessing the Internet. According to Android developer stats, Honeycomb makes up only .2 percent of all devices.
Meanwhile, DigiTimes reports from people inside Apple’s supply chain that more than 2.5 million units were delivered to Apple. Considering it’s been nearly sold out everywhere, it’s likely Apple has easily sold this amount, if not more. DigiTimes also noted its estimates are “conservative.”
Okay, so what’s the real story? iPad 2 beats Xoom — big deal, right? Well, it wouldn’t be such a big deal if Motorola hadn’t rolled out its tablet with such a cocky attitude. Before CES, Motorola dissed nearly every tablet in existence, including other Android tablets. Now, the ‘buzz’ about Honeycomb seems like it was all stinger and no venom.
So why the flop? I suspect part of the issue is the abstract advertising by Motorola and Verizon, which I’ve said before is unhelpful and alienating in selling the device. I also said this was part of the reason 70 percent of all iPad 2 owners never owned an original iPad. The proliferation of iPads plus Apple’s simple advertising was an equation for success. But it’s also more than that.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak recently said tablets are for “… the normal people in the world.” It’s brilliant, really, if you think about it. Apple hasn’t advertised the tech specs for the new iPad, instead showing people how it ‘just works’ and all the fun and productive things you can do.
Meanwhile, many Android commercials, Xoom included, boast numbers, figures and tech specs as though they will draw in the “normal” crowd. Now, I’m not saying the Xoom strategy has to be exactly the same as Apple’s, but with only 100,000 sold, it seems like even the geek crowd hasn’t jumped on the Honeycomb bandwagon.
I think the bottom line for success in the tablet wars will be:
What can your tablet do and/or what apps does it have?
How easy can users perform the things the tablet is supposed to do?
How easy is it for developers to make the tablet do those things?
That may be simplistic, but that’s part of the idea. Complexity shouldn’t be part of something that is supposed to be ubiquitous and intuitive to use. But then again, I am just a normal person.
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