[cgk]

HP, not Samsung, was the ruler of non-iPad tablets in the US for the first ten months of the year, the NPD Group said in a new study. With just 1.2 million tablets sold at retail across every company outside of Apple, HP was the leader in the country at 17 percent, or 204,000, sold between its launch and October. The low count suggests that the fire sale $99 TouchPad, not HP's Windows range, was the sales leader by going on clearance.

Samsung was close, but at 16 percent (192,000) faced a symbolic embarrassment. If accurate, it suggested the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and other models couldn't outsell an HP tablet being cleared out for a lack of initial interest. Globally, Samsung has been unusually silent on shipments since it stopped reporting the original Galaxy Tab early in 2011. The company historically marks any milestone possible if strong or fast enough.

NPD: Samsung Galaxy Tab sales low enough that HP outsold it | Electronista

[nappy]

1.2 million non-Apple tablets sold in the past 10 months is, while not unexpected, still a sobering number to see.

[johnsonx42]

those numbers can't be right. I thought the Touchpad totals were ~1,000,000 units.

[74sickness]

its cause of the firesale if it wasent for the firesale we would be like last.

[dignitary]

those numbers can't be right. I thought the Touchpad totals were ~1,000,000 units.

Those numbers were based on a forecast of Q3 sales, not hard numbers at all: Winter for webOS, winter for Droid, but springtime for iPad! • Channel Register

Maybe people will finally stop throwing around inflated numbers they can't source.

[jrstinkfish]

Yikes, I knew it'd be under 500,000, that all the claims of "millions of new webOS owners" were wrong, but 204,000 even after a $99 firesale?

Still, I think non-iOS tablet sales will pick up in the coming year. They'll never reach iPad levels, but if they're priced properly, they'll sell. But when I saw the new Asus Transformer Prime starts at $500, I had to shake my head. They just don't get it, so I may be wrong on this one.

[dignitary]

Yikes, I knew it'd be under 500,000, that all the claims of "millions of new webOS owners" were wrong, but 204,000 even after a $99 firesale?

Two data sources:

1. Shipment numbers for 3Q11 from Digitimes (which were estimates being posed as hard numbers if you see the graph): Digitimes Research: Global tablet PC shipments reach 18.7 million units)

2. The 4.5-4.7% 3Q11 market share estimates from IDC I linked to above.

Some people were using fuzzy math and cherry-picking between the two sources, despite the fact shipment numbers have nothing to do with actual sales, to get that magic 1,000,000 estimate in sales. And then, of course, people took those numbers and ran with it.

It was only a matter of time before real, concrete numbers surfaced and threw a bucket of cold water on those that vigorously defended their speculation.

[cgk]

Yikes, I knew it'd be under 500,000, that all the claims of "millions of new webOS owners" were wrong, but 204,000 even after a $99 firesale?

Still, I think non-iOS tablet sales will pick up in the coming year. They'll never reach iPad levels, but if they're priced properly, they'll sell. But when I saw the new Asus Transformer Prime starts at $500, I had to shake my head. They just don't get it, so I may be wrong on this one.

Some analysts are predicting that the amazon fire is going to cause a glut of amazon tablets left unsold in the channel causing all sorts of problems.

[djsvetljo]

It looks like HP TouchPad is the second most popular tablet for this year, in quantities too.

HP surprisingly emerges as No. 2 tablet maker | Mobile - CNET News

Developers! Developers! Developers!

[johnsonx42]

@vanadium - you're cherry picking just as much as anyone else, just you're trying to justify a ridiculously low number instead of a high number.

the touchpad total may not actually be ~1,000,000, but 204,000 is obviously wrong. Best Buy alone supposedly had 275,000 in their inventory alone, and the final post-firesale production run was 100,000-200,000 units. HP SMB's firesale backorders (all fullfilled) were believed to have consumed ~50-100k units.

204,000 units simply makes no sense as a touchpad total.

[dignitary]

Already being discussed here: http://forums.precentral.net/hp-touc...2011-date.html

[djsvetljo]

Already being discussed here: http://forums.precentral.net/hp-touc...2011-date.html

Ok, how do I delete my post

[geekpeter]

think if u goto edit mode theres a delete button or ask a mod.

[geekpeter]

maybe the figures also goin off activated units? theres still a lot floating around due to the horrible resellers out there.

[jrstinkfish]

@vanadium - you're cherry picking just as much as anyone else, just you're trying to justify a ridiculously low number instead of a high number.

the touchpad total may not actually be ~1,000,000, but 204,000 is obviously wrong. Best Buy alone supposedly had 275,000 in their inventory alone, and the final post-firesale production run was 100,000-200,000 units. HP SMB's firesale backorders (all fullfilled) were believed to have consumed ~50-100k units.

Key word: supposedly. Was there ever confirmation by Best Buy that they actually had 275,000 in stock, or did it remain in the "inside sources" realm? I find it hard to believe, based on the low sales numbers of Android tablets, that Best Buy would take delivery of 275,000 Touchpads.

[dignitary]

There's a huge difference between:

1. The number of units actually made
2. The number of units actually shipped
3. The number of units actually sold

Some people seem to be caught up on either #1 or #2 as a reason to discredit #3. Until someone can show hard sell-through numbers that differ from what NPD reported today, then that person is speculating. NPD uses actual retail and distributor sales data to get their numbers, whereas estimates take into account equations and fancy math to effectively make a guess.

"Supposedly" and "believed to have" aren't facts, they're guesses. And nobody knows what the final production run consisted of other than "reports" which, as you know, can be believed about as much as those endless "reports" of companies buying webOS.

Unless you or anyone else can call up HP and get a firm number of units 1) made, 2) shipped, and 3) remaining in inventory, then you're speculating on the numbers.

[djsvetljo]

I can not see a delete button, so any Moderator - please delete this post

[chalx]

I might be wrong, but I remember in yesterday's report, there was some $200 mill income related to Touchpad firesale. 200,000 units sold at firesale prices couldn't generate $200 mill.

[dignitary]

No, but modification and/or cancellation of manufacturing, distribution, marketing (agencies and celebs!) and retailer contracts could certainly make up the slack including the loss taken on each and every Touchpad sold at firesale plus the rebates given to those that bought at full price.

[ka1]

I might be wrong, but I remember in yesterday's report, there was some $200 mill income related to Touchpad firesale. 200,000 units sold at firesale prices couldn't generate $200 mill.

I am also curious about that. The $200 million is an actual number. So that is 1million fire sale devices sold, or a third that number at full price, or some combo in between.

Maybe that also includes software?

My guess is alot of the sales were direct from HP, or through some channel not included in the report, who seems to be gathering their data from retailers.