Even the success stories among tablet vendors are exhibiting less - than - stellar sell - through, with companies like ASUS, creator of the popular Eee Pad Transformer, said to have left nearly 30 % of the 700,000
tablets it shipped between May and July on store shelves.
Not exact matches
The
shipping date is
between 7 - 9 weeks, so you will not likely receive this
tablet until well after the Valentine's Day promotion.
Motorola Mobility, which was acquired by Google in August for $ 12.5 billion, said it
shipped 440,000 Xoom
tablets last quarter and expects to
ship between 1.3 million and 1.5 million for the full year.
The IDC report is contradictory to research conducted by Strategy Analytics, which estimates Amazon
shipped 2.8 million
tablets in the first quarter, and it's unclear why there is such a large discrepancy
between the numbers.
The response also did not elaborate on why the Xoom is being
shipped with the 1x voice calling channel activated since
tablets are usually
shipped with data only hardware. This is not unprecedented for Verizon, as it has previously made arbitrary distinctions
between hardware and software in order to exercise control over device sales and pricing, such as the Bluetooth profile incident with the Motorola V710.
The latest research from IDC suggests that total
tablet and e-reader sales declined much more than expected after the holidays,
shipping 17.4 million, a drop of 38.4 percent instead of the expected 34 percent
between the last quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012.
In a separate note, Vijay Rakesh of ThinkEquity said his checks with manufacturers indicate Apple is on track to
ship between 1 million and 3 million
tablets during the March quarter.
Quanta, the company that builds Amazon's Kindle Fire
tablet, has already
shipped between 3 and 4 million of the devices.
There isn't a 1:1 correspondence
between touch panels
shipped and the number of
tablets based upon them that will
ship, but it's close enough, especially when you're dealing with what are, in any case, just forecasts.
Citing sources from within Apple's supply chain, DigiTimes reports that the
tablet titan plans to
ship between 6 and 6.5 million iPad
tablets in the first quarter of 2011.
When the Nook
Tablet shipped late last year, it seemed like a modest update to the earlier Nook Color, which itself felt like a middle step between a traditional e-reader and a true t
Tablet shipped late last year, it seemed like a modest update to the earlier Nook Color, which itself felt like a middle step
between a traditional e-reader and a true
tablettablet.
RIM's half - year delay
between announcing and
shipping the
tablet also tarnished its reputation, since the company spent all its energy attacking the original iPad but, because of the interval, ended up competing against a larger, faster iPad 2.
Asustek's chief executive Jerry Shen said that the company was sticking with its forecast that it will
ship between 1.5 m and 2m
tablets for 2011, having
shipped 1m in the first three quarters of the year.
With a 5.3 - inch display placing it at the border
between smartphones and
tablets, Galaxy Note was an unexpected market success, Samsung reporting that 5 million units were
shipped five months after the official market debut.
They also
ship with Yoga's iconic hinge that lets you quickly switch
between laptop and
tablet modes, and everything in
between.