Apple Inc's iPad Dominates Chinese Tablet Market
Apple Inc's iPhone may not be the No.1 smart phone in China but its iPad is dominating the Chinese tablet market. Apple has a 51.7 per cent tablet market share while Samsung has 13 per cent. Lenovo comes in third with 9.1 per cent.
According to a report from Analysys,an estimated 4.353 million tablets were sold in China. The figure may be small compared to the United States data but the Chinese tablet market continues to grow at a rapid pace. The recent figure is a 67.2 increase from 2012 and it is 21.7 per cent higher than the second quarter of this year.
Despite the large market share that Apple Inc has, the iPad is not compatible with the 3G/LTE frequencies of China. Apple needs to overcome this obstacle to increase its market share in the coming years.
The release of the iPad Air is expected to boost Apple Inc's iPad sales for the holiday quarter. Analysts also expect strong sales to drive Apple's share in the international tablet market.
Apple Inc has released the iPad Air in its stores on Nov. 1 and is expected to show strong opening weekend sales. Investors who are concerned with the sales performance of Apple's latest tablet may be happy to know that the iPad Air has a higher adoption rate than the previous iPad. Mobile analytics company Fiksu reported that the iPad Air had five times the adoption rate of the iPad 4 during the first three days of sale.
According to Fiksu, Apple's new iPad also had a higher adoption rate than the original iPad Mini at three times to one. Even if the opening weekend adoption rates for the iPad Mini and iPad 4 is combined, the iPad Air still comes out on top with twice the rate.
Fiksu reported that Apple Inc's latest iPad is 0.75 per cent of all iPads while the iPad 4 accounted for 0.37 per cent. The iPad Mini had 0.35 per cent. The company also said the iPad 2 accounted for 37.1 per cent in the total iPad market share. Following the iPad 2 is the iPad 4 with 22.5 per cent and the original iPad Mini at 20.8 per cent.
Brian J. White, chief financial analyst of Cantor Fitzgerald, said the iPad Air was strongly welcomed and sales were strong. Mr White said that Apple's iPad Air was sold out quickly in Hong Kong while shipping times in China were expanding.