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Report Claims Microsoft Beat Apple in Online Tablet Sales for October (winbeta.org)
Eloking writes: Apple's iPad tablet ushered in the modern tablet era when it was introduced in 2010, and it's dominated tablet sales ever since. iPad sales have stagnated recently, but nevertheless Apple has maintained its lead in overall tablet market share. WinBeta received an early version of an upcoming report, '1010data Facts for Ecom Insights, January 2014 – October 2015' by the 101data Ecom Insights Panel, however, that indicates all of that might be changing as Microsoft assumes the mantle of best-selling tablet maker in terms of online sales in October.
At one point, everyone who wanted an iPad and is able to afford one will already have done so. After that, these people will only buy a new one to upgrade once in a while.
I recall reading about when Pepsi overtook Coke. Everyone rejoiced. However, in actual fact, Coke still outsold Pepsi by a wide margin; the overtaking was in grocery store sales which they had managed to do by making the six-pack into an 8-pack for the same price and then measuring by total volume.
And here we have a report that says MS outsold Apple in *online sales*. Hmmm. I suspect that Apple sells the majority, if not the vast majority, of their sales through retail chains. So when I read:
"The report did not take in account customers who purchased their tablets in brick-and-mortar stores, such as Apple’s retail stores or Best Buy."
Then basically I think this is even less of a mini-victory than Fortune posits. Pepsi anyone?
Tablets are already dying off, the iPad sales plateau is proof of that.
Why tablets are dying is a more interesting question.
Tablets aren't dying. Tablet sales are falling off because the people willing to buy one now have one. Tablets will stick around for the foreseeable future.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The Surface and Windows Phones will sell very well to corporates with heavy investment in Microsoft tech because it integrates very well and the Surface can run all their proprietary software. Apple and Linux fanboys are completely incapable of understanding that the corporate world is never going to fully embrace something that doesn't allow them to take advantage of their huge investment in Windows.