Apple has all the sales numbers to prove its dominance over the tablet market and if a report from research firm Ticonderoga
Securities is to be believed then it is likely to continue its firm grip for quite some time. While given the fact that iPad 2 is still commanding a long waiting period, a superb sales performance is expected. However, some analysts are certainly going overboard with their optimism as is the case with Ticonderoga analysts.
The research firm claimed that the Cupertino company is expected to sell up to 45 million iPad during the calendar year. The same firm had earlier pegged its estimates at 30.9 million units, however, after meeting some components suppliers from China and Taiwan, the firm decided to fatten up its estimates by good 50 percent. Now, that' some flight of fancy!
In the meantime, iPad continues to ravage notebook segments and the companies, or at least their number sheets, do not look happy. It was disappointing enough that the International Data Corporation pegged its first quarter shipment growth forecast at puny 1.5 percent. But the actual numbers managed to be even more abysmal. Not only the PC shipment growth failed to meet the target but it actually declined by 3.2 percent.
While, there are several other reasons behind the downfall, but the most prominent one is the emergence of new tablet segment. Out of all the major computer vendors, only Toshiba and Apple were able to show any growth in the quarterly shipment on year over year basis. Apple managed to increase its shipment by 9.6 percent whereas Toshiba showed 10.4 percent growth.
Although, Apple has set high benchmarks for the tablet segment, but seems like the other companies are not doing their homework either. First, Samsung failed to perform any miracle with its tablet. Then, Motorola rushed its Honeycomb tablet and shipped it without 4G or Flash support. Now, if the company managed to sell only 100,000 tablets so far, nobody should be surprised. However, its performance has led other companies to review their tablet plans. HTC which introduced its Flyer tablet recently, has recently pushed back the volume production dates. Asus has also reportedly delayed the introduction of Eee Pad Transformer tablet.