Apple iPad Air on the minds of 72% of tablet buyers

The November study, from consumer research agency Changewave, showed that of the 13 percent of respondents who said they would be in the market for a tablet over the holiday season, less than one third would consider an option other than an iPad. Apple's 72 percent share represents a 17-point jump since the agency's August survey, conducted before the introduction of Apple's new iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display.


None of Apple's competitors touched double digits in the most recent round. Samsung's Galaxy lineup dropped from 13 percent to 9 percent, Google's nexus from 12 percent to 9 percent, and Amazon's Kindle Fire from 6 percent to 5 percent. Purchase intent for Microsoft's Surface tablets ticked up slightly, from 7 percent to 8 percent. 

Of the iPad buyers, 55 percent said they intended to purchase an iPad Air, while 16 percent would opt for the Retina display-equipped iPad mini. The iPad 2, interestingly, seems to be more appealing than the reduced-price first-generation iPad mini, with an additional 2 percent of consumers preferring the larger of the non-Retina tablets.

A further 17 percent were unsure which iPad they would buy. 

Apple's iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display have proven popular, with robust sales despite constrained supplies of the 7.8-inch slate. The devices were met with rave reviews, especially the all-new iPad Air — AppleInsider's hands-on review found the iPad Air to be "the best full-size tablet on the market today" and "the new standard" in tablets.

Apple iPhone Predicted to have 68% Market share at peak

Horace Dediu has come up with another one of his interesting little analyses of the way that the electronics markets are working. Here he’s trying to predict what portion of the smartphone market Apple will have as and when the smartphone market itself peaks. That peak will of course be when the market is saturated and we move from an expanding marketplace over to one where we are only either replacing aged kit and or following the demographic changes in the population. The remarkable result is that Dediu thinks that Apple will have 68% of the entire US smartphone market at that point:

We also know from the plot of the market that F = .91 is reached around February 2017. So we can suggest that at 90% penetration (approximately saturation) the iPhone will have 68% market share of users in the US. Forecasting the addressable market (US population aged older than 13) at about 266 million that implies 180 million US users of the iPhone by early 2017.

As to the predictive accuracy of that method I’m not sure. It would appear to depend upon the idea that Apple remains the most popular phone for the next three years which is something I expect to see happen but am not sure about.

But there’s something else more interesting in these numbers I think. Which is that we expect to reach market saturation in 2017. Saturation being defined here as 90% of the population using the technology: no technologies ever achieve 100% penetration of the market of course. And the remarkable thing about this is that the smartphone won’t even be ten years old by that point. Yes, the first real smartphone (there were attempts before this but nothing that really grasped peoples’ attention) was indeed the iPhone and it was released in 2007. But not until June: so if market saturation comes in Feb 2017 then market saturation will come in just under a decade.

And that is just amazing, stupendous in fact. It makes the smartphone by far the fastest adopted technology ever. The only one that comes anywhere close is the closely related cell phone. As an example it took at least 50 years for electrification to achieve full penetration of the market. All of which is why it always slightly surprise me when people talk about this great technological stagnation we’re supposed to be going through. We’re right in the middle of the fastest technological change ever

iPhone 5s outsells the Galaxy S4 to top the charts in October

The October sales reports are in and they show Apple's has found its form. The iPhone 5s has outsold the Galaxy S4, according to the research firm, Counterpoint.

This was achieved, even though the iPhones weren't able to catch up with consumer demand, making many customers wait for their 5s goodness. The jump has been attributed to strong sales in China, where Apple raised it's market share by a whopping 9%, jumping from just 3% to 12% in October alone. Now that supply has increased, counterpoint expects a ramp up in sales.

"With a China Mobile deal on the horizon, Apple's iPhone 5s at all three [Chinese] carriers will for sure ignite a 'price war' boosting the overall iPhone 5s sales in China," Said Tom Kang, of Counterpoint. "This might allow Apple to even reach the No. 1 smartphone player in December or January in China."

Apple's iPhone 5 snagged second place, leaving the Galaxy S4 in third. The 5c was fourth, and the S3 and S4 mini claimed fifth and sixth.

Apple's aggressive move into China is clearly paying off for the Cupertino-based company. Let's see if the tech giant will continue to stay on top for the months to come.