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Android Beats iOS As the Top Tablet OS
sfcrazy writes "Linux is on a roll. After conquering the smartphone space, Android is now dominating the tablet space. According to a new study by Gartner, 'the tablet growth in 2013 was fueled by the low-end smaller screen tablet market, and first time buyers; this led Android to become the No. 1 tablet operating system (OS), with 62 percent of the market.'"
Also, everyone is buying tablets.(~200 million sold in 2013 vs ~115 million in 2012). Microsoft still only has 2% of the tablet market.
It is finally here! Now we just need it to be an open platform.
So what, it took Apple to even do it right the first time. After all those Palm devices and Windows CE devices were just a bunch of low-battery-life devices that forgot their memory when they ran out of power.
Look OSS and Android guys, it doesn't matter how many how many of the devices are being shipped if all the money is being made on the more developer-friendly iOS ecosystem. If you want people to develop for Android, update Android consistently so that all devices have the same features, and quit letting vaporware and shovelware dominate the marketplace.
Where do they get their sales figures from? Do they include sites like DX, madeinchina et al?
If not, then I'm pretty confident Android has been outselling iOS for several years now.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Given that Android licensing costs are near zero and there aren't any other viable choices, why is Android a surprise at all? As for the sales volume, the low end of the market is big numbers. You can make Mercedes profit if you sell VW volume.
I'm curious what the sales numbers are for Surface Pros. I'm in the market for a new laptop and the Surface Pro is appealing as a sort of replacement. My existing dual-core 8 GB Dell with a 500 GB SSD is kind of a tank but with the SSD it's still usable for networking tasks. But for a lot of what I do, the Surface Pro would be fine and I could drag out the laptop if I really needed it.
My only fear is that I would accessorize it to death -- BT mouse, ethernet dongle, a bunch of USB sticks, and be basically back to lugging around the laptop.
But I have both an iPad and a Nexus 7, both new as of about 6 months ago. The Nexus is getting a lot more use by me on a day-to-day basis because it's the form factor of a kindle, fits in my jacket pocket and is easy to hold, read, and play games on.
The iPad is mostly collecting dust unless I want to watch Netflix, TiVo, or Amazon Prime videos on it. It's a much larger screen but it makes it a bit unwieldy to easily hold. My wife has the air. I think it's still a bit too wide to easily carry with you, but she likes it.
As for the Surface tablets, I finally got a good chance to look at them last week. They're much bulkier than I was expecting.
Seems like with tablets quickly approaching the $40 range they are almost a disposable commodity. I would expect Android tablets will quickly get to over 90% of the market in short order since everyone will be able to have one of these powerful little computing devices.
Can someone explain the appeal of Sailfish? To me it seems like a gesture heavy take on android that doesn't seem especially interesting for the amount of attention it's getting.
Don't believe.
There is NO Posix userspace on Android.
Posix kernel land is locked/limited.
Why does it take 16 GB RAM to compile the Android tarball? That's some BEAUTIFUL community inclusion!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
In 2013:
http://9to5mac.com/2014/03/03/ipads-were-the-biggest-selling-tablets-last-year-despite-falling-market-share/
Who is making all these tablets? Here's the rough breakdown of 2013 unit volume from Gartner for worldwide:
* Apple 36%
* Samsung 19%
* ASUS 6%
* Amazon 5%
* Lenovo 3%
* All others 31%
the first notable thing is that Apple sells more than Samsung, Asus, Amazon, and Lenovo combined. The second notable thing, who is the "all others"? All sort of white-label chinese makers? Who is buying these? And can you say that these are truly Android tablets if they have some sort of modified android 2.3?
Here are the categories that I see in this market:
* iOS
* "Premium" Android. The Galaxy Tabs, the Nexus tablets, etc. Sold in US, EU, etc. The ones we are familiar with
* Kindle
* MS Surface
* white label tablets. Presumably built and sold in China, elsewhere.
We need to recognize that premium android might as well be a different OS than white label android. The apps will be different, the languages will be different, the monetization will be different, the fragmentation will be different. For all intensive purposes premium android is as removed from white label android as it is from kindle.
There is one manufacturer of iOS tablets, there are butt loads of android tablet makers.
That fact alone tips the balance. And like the story says, lots of them are *cheap*, in a market where apple would never tread.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Is Apple selling two or three?
Anyway, Apple has 36% of the market while selling only a few models.
I think they'll survive for awhile.
...that it's time for another law suit.
Sure, if you go with Gartner's numbers which undercut Apple's reported sales figures (you know, numbers that undergo SEC scrutiny for accuracy) by almost 4 million units while also adding in Android "white box" units that include TV dongles which track as tablets despite being not-at-all tablets while also clouding the results by reporting Apple's sales-to-end-users numbers with Android's shipped-into-channel numbers. So, yeah, if you cut Apple's numbers and artificially inflate Android's numbers, yes, Android is beating iOS in the tablet space.
And now you may mod me troll while claiming I'm just an Apple fanboy for speaking the truth.
I have such fond memories of when this site wasn't such a blatant tool of spin doctors for certain industry interests...
I love my Android tablet, it does 90 percent of what I used to need a laptop to do. The only minor niggle is no Flash support. I get why Google doesn't want to support it but so many sites still use it.
That and Chromecast is great for streaming Netflix content on TV.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Android IS an open platform. It's entirely up to you if you want to be locked into Google's ecosystem or not. Install Cyanogenmod or another third-party ROM, then look as there's no GApps or Google all over your phone. But remember it's now up to you to sideload a new app store and get the APKs to what non-Google services you use.
The Amarri pray for god, the Caldari pray for profit. the Gallente pray for peace, but the Minmatar pray their ships hol
Most of the "white label" tablets floating around are running uncustomized Android 4.0+. Customizing software costs money, so they just put vanillia Android on most of them.
Is that number shipped or sold? Either way though Android is on so much junk, its probably not being used anymore. iOS has the most web traffic and was rated number 1 at mobile world congress this year.
I would pretty much take it for granted that close to all of those low cost crap tablets are in desk drawers by now. I myslef bought chromebook at an irresistable price to try it. Yes it stinks.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Gartner has a terrible track record. If you see any article citing Gartner statistics or predictions, you are best served by ignoring and moving along.
http://www.zdnet.com/why-does-...
http://seekingalpha.com/instab...
From Wikipedia:
"OHA [Open Handset Alliance] members are contractually forbidden from producing devices that are based off incompatible forks of Android."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O...
This has a chilling effect on hiring manufacturers to build your actual device when most of them are already tied to OHA.
This is a perverse definition of "open".
From http://appleinsider.com/articl...
"The most glaring inconsistency is a disconnect between Gartner's 70.4 million iPad sales and Apple's self-reported 74 million unit sales for 2013. From the first quarter — Apple's second fiscal quarter — to the fourth, the company reported iPad sales of 19.5 million, 14.6 million, 14.1 million and 26 million, respectively. The total: 74.2 million iPads sold during 2013. "
Note these numbers are reported by Apple on SEC filings, not on press releases.
wah! Ram is cheap.
Build your own tarball and add your own userspace to it.
Ive been using computers for 27+ years and have never owned apple anything until my employer got me an iphone5s. Im never using android ever again. It is the biggest piece of shit OS I have ever used in a modern device.
you can add Debian and its ports to Android
quit your whining, you pansy
Or by number of eye-ball-minutes sold to advertizers?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
How many are returned? How many are used? How many are sitting around collecting dust?
i only use it to listen to pirated audiobooks, i don't want to browse the web or watch youtube with google spying on me and recording everything, and for audiobooks i paid for i just use my iphone...which i must say sounds so much better, the speaker on the nexus is just total crap compared to the iphone, sounds like shit even with a damn audiobook. anyways, i guess that counds as an "android sale" nevermind the fact that i only actually buy shit from itunes so lot of good it does google, i sure hope they don't sell these things at a loss like amazon does...
Tough guy going all Stallman on your ass. Here's the link https://github.com/android Now, I know you're lame little ass wanted the WIP version, but why would Google divulge what they're working on to their competitors? It never ceases to amaze me, Google opens their OS and yet there's always these little minions that want the URL to the Google internal trunk. Stick to iOS.
Well, it's not like you have any talent to do any music production.
Despite this claim to large number shipped I just am not seeing Android tablets out in the hands of users. I've seen a couple (count them, two) Kindles in the real world.
Meanwhile I've seen many hundreds of Apple's iPad's and thousands of iPhones, iPodTouches, etc.
Something's not right with the statistics given in the article. It just doesn't match the real world. So is this a Shipped vs Sales confusion?
Or maybe the Androids are being hidden away in 'smart' devices like toasters and washing machines. That would certainly inflate the Android numbers.
Well, it doesn't really matter. Our family has six iPodTouches, an iPad and five MacBooks. How many Androids are being claimed to be sold is completely irrelevant. What matters is we can do the things we want to do from content creation to communications to consumption with the devices we have.
Bed old man. iOS, is for simpletons after all.
What this article is totally glossing over is the fact that Google is making a lot of inroads, not just through Android devices that are tied into Google services and apps, but also through their iOS apps which have gained a lot of traction as well. Two of the top iOS apps of 2013 were Google Maps and YouTube, both huge ad revenue generators for Google. In the long run, this could be troubling for Apple as it boxes them in to remaining mostly a hardware company. Hardware gets commoditized much faster than software and services do.
Again they are comparing Apple delivered to customer numbers and Android shipping wholesale numbers. Many of those are junk tablets that are never. In addition Apple reported higher numbers in an SEC regulated report that Gartner used, Apple says 74 million, Gartner used the figure of 70 million.
http://appleinsider.com/articl...
the biggest lie yet!
of all the people i see using and having tablets, i never seen one being android, all are apple. always.
Can't load additional comments, password goofiness at login. this blows.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I don't care. I still don't trust Gartner (even if they are saying good things). I will look to other sources before I look at theirs.
I wish it ran X Window System natively vs Android. I have Droid 1, 2 and 3 phones which are used as wifi palm-tablets, and nexus 7(aweful imo), and some powerful china tablet....
Having started with computers as a kid in the 80's and progressing on, I find the possibility of these devices a fulfillment of a dream(With only neural interface to remain a dream). But there is a problem...
As soon as one product is released, anticipation for the next is already underway, and most support for existing devices lasts only a year or so, never truly resolving problems for users who, actually use their devices. Sure messaging, or facebook, or some other trendy feature problems get patched pretty quickly; But stability issues are rarely addressed, or quirks of the system where an app might be suspended in one device when the screen is off and not in 5 others(yes familiar with various sleep/power options).
This is a big issue for me who really WANTS to have Android do more, but I spend weeks trying to resolve stability/app issues with alternative roms etc etc; Making matters worse is with each new version of Android/devices features are removed, stability worsened.
If they can put a removable battery in a Droid2/Droid3 they can put it in most anything; and should; If you buy something without an easily replaceable battery you are supporting designed obsolescence.
Google and other larger players are removing microSD slots saying it's 'too complicated', as we know the real reason is to charge dumb customers for cloud services. I try to reduce services on a monthly subscription; Hell give me a device with TWO SD slots.
Currently the most stable/goto device of all listed above are Droid2(a955 and a956) with Cyanogenmod 7.1 without google apps installed(everything side installed); It finally works and I have weeks(47 days atm) of uptime/stability(AND doing lots of work, security camera monitoring, mail,irc, samba,torrenting,video), I want other newer devices to do t he same, but not been able to get the stability/function quite right.
Still I'd love it to just run linux with a native* OS and apps, it would be 'that much faster', and more control over the OS(Curse Android for pre-launching/anticipating apps, and lack of user control over what closes/opens/reports when)
Could it be true but there are still many problems that android users encountered like battery is easily drain.
Bill Gates must be pissed Pen Windows never caught on. First released in 1991!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W...
Hamburger tops steak in meat sales race.
Greed is the root of all evil.
"bingo"
gah...this kills me...yes i'm posting vitriol but I have a coherent point...
you can't say "bingo" in a witty retort unless you...you know...actually 'slam' the person with your witticism..
see, saying X is good because it will be here "soon" therefore you "bingo" made some kind of awesome winning point in a debate....especially in relation to Linux distros....well it's fucking stupid
here's the thing...this FANBOI ABOVE ALL ELSE mentality is actually hurting our industry
it gives people unrealistic notions of what is actually used and what actually **works** in tech...it makes us look stupid when inevitably the all-volunteer OS software isn't ready when it is claimed...it gives newer tech workers false notions of what work is valuable
I HATE ALL FANBOIDOM....all fanboi hype bullshit...apple, M$, Linux, I don't give a FUCK it's all stupid
stop the madness....stop the fanboi hype
Thank you Dave Raggett
More Chevys are sold than Ferraris.
All iPod 2nd gen and newer can all be updated to IOS7.
How many Android tablets can be updated without "hacking"?
free vs. commercial, free with cheap hardware will win every time.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
can't we have a full GNU/Linux distro running natively on these phones /tablets ?
wow, the apple fan-boy butt hurt is strong here.....
Linux in android is confined to the kernel. Virtually everything in user land is BSD based from the C runtime up. While the kernel performs a vital role, I suspect that if Google had reason to they could switch it out and users would barely notice.
If I had mod points now...
I could be wrong, but I believe this number only includes tablets connected to the Google ecosystem. I wonder how many tens of millions of non-connected tablets from developing countries and Kindle Fires were sold in 2013?
Developers of applications that run on Android code to the Android userland API, which largely isolates developers from the kernel. Developers of applications that run on top of embedded Linux, such as developers of home router firmware, code to a lower level API where the kernel is important.
How many applications absolutely require Google Play Services? I thought developers of applications designed for Android tablets were supposed to architect their applications to make Google Play Services optional in order to target Fire OS, the Android distribution used on Amazon's Kindle Fire tablets.
Also, everyone is buying tablets.
False.
I'm not buying one.
Until they start producing ones with a matte screen.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
I guess one thing keeping people from accepting Android's victory among Linux GUIs is that while GNU/Linux allows several different window management policies on top of X11, Android locks users into all maximized all the time. This policy works for some but importantly not all use cases. If you're trying to take notes on an e-book or other document, you can split the screen with one document on one side and your notetaking application on the other in any major X11 window manager, but not in Android. Even if a tablet is bigger than two or three phone displays put together, you can't split the screen. Even if you've docked the device to a big honkin' 24 inch monitor through a device's HDMI port, you still can't split the screen. What happens is that the Android Compatibility Definition Document allows applications to assume that the screen area never changes after an application is installed. Is this intended to get people to buy two devices, one for reading and one for writing?
That's because Apple products are for fan boys and old ladies.
In 2012 MS had 1% of the market, in 2013 MS doubled market share to 2%, but that hides the fact that MS went from 1.1M units in 2012 to 4M units in 2013.
Microsoft doubled market share in a growing market, nearly quadrupling the number of units sold between 2012 and 2013...
Ken
Is the only tablet up till now I would consider buying after my Thrive, that has a limitation of no removable battery.
It is very good.
Unless someone knows how I can get KitKat on my Toshiba Thrive, which is still a great tablet, going on its third battery.
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
From TFS:
Android is only "linux" in the sense that a poor man is a rich man. They're both men, but the former has so many limits compared to the latter that the day to day experience is in no way similar. Linux, the computer OS we consider on the same playing field as OSX and Windows -- and what people almost always mean when they say "linux" -- is on no more of a roll than usual. Until (unless... I really don't expect it to happen) there is an actual linux available for the phone where the legit owner of the phone can have root and can get at everything there is in the software and hardware, it's only linux in name -- the poor man. There are many reasons why the corporate and political world wants to keep us away from the actual telephone and radio hardware, and I can't see those going away -- they're worth far too much money. So that rules out the phones. Most tablets are similarly locked down, but with less reason, and again, I just don't see them as "linux." I can do a lot more -- a lot more -- on my linux desktops than I can on my various android tablets. And of course, I can't do much under iOS, either.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
hey man, it's not like I excoriated your whole existence
I *did* have a coherent point...about our industry and hype...that's where my rage was vented no you, Wild_dog!
Yes you exhibited fanboi behavior. Linux fanboi.
TFA seemed a bit like an ad for Linux...Android was developed by google, so a Gentoo user claiming that Android's penetration is a "win for Linux" was questionable. TFA was not what it seemed.
A commenter pointed out this and YOU responded.
Your response was a fanboi response. The GP raised a **legitimate point** and you answered as if your point **bingo** answered that criticism.
BINGO
"soon"
your point about Sailfish OS and Meego does NOT answer the GP's criticism!
Thank you Dave Raggett
What on earth is "premium android"? Do you mean "custom ROM"? [...] The main difference is in the raw power of the hardware.
I don't know what noh8rz10 means, but I mean an Android device with enough "raw power of the hardware" to run a decent ROM. This means a fast enough CPU, enough RAM that the task killer doesn't kill Chrome as soon as you switch back to the launcher (possible exaggeration), and a responsive touch screen.
Every android user has access to the same software.
Not necessarily. There's Android with Google Play (OHA members), there's Fire OS (Amazon), and there's plain AOSP (everyone else).
Every apple user has access to the same software
Within less than a year after Apple stopped selling the iPod touch 4, it stopped releasing new versions of iOS for it.
and the same hardware.
Not necessarily. Apple's strategy for the low end of iOS has been to keep selling previous-generation products: the iPhone 3GS while the 4S was out, the 5C (iPhone 5 guts in a colored plastic shell) after the 5S release, and the non-retina iPad 2 after the iPad 4.
The reason they are falling behind is the same reason they fell behind in the 90s. They sell closed, proprietary tech.
So why haven't the video game console makers fallen behind despite their tech being even more closed than an iPhone?
If I put a 10" tablet on a stand and pair a keyboard, is it still a "handheld device"? If not, then why does a 10" tablet still labor under the UI restrictions of a 4" phone?
Gartner counting every 10 dollar Walmart special haha.
if it was so open, there wouldn't be lawsuits going on right now asking for Google to expose its source code to look for stolen code. And Samsung et al wouldn't be making their own OS (Tizen) and same with Firefox.
Hopefully, Google and Samsung get together on making this a standard.
My gripe is that they haven't already. They've had since Honeycomb to do so.
Given that it's a two minute process (well, plus testing of course)
Does this sort of testing work flawlessly in the Android SDK device simulator, or does one have to buy a Galaxy Tab to do the testing? Perhaps part of the reason that not enough Android apps have the proper flag set in their manifest is that not enough developers own a suitable Samsung device.
I assume that you're similarly disdainful for anybody who uses a game console or handheld?
Yes. Instead of a game console, one can choose a home theater PC. Instead of a handheld, one can choose a phone with a clip-on gamepad. Some clip-on gamepads even fold up like a GBA SP.