“Our smartphone and handset checks indicate iPads are selling better to Android smartphone users than the current Android tablets,” Walkley said in a Friday note to clients (although he provided no numbers in support of the assertion). “As a result, we argue consumers purchasing a tablet are more likely to remain in that ecosystem given higher price points for tablet applications. With our checks indicating Android smartphone consumers are choosing the iPad versus Android tablets, we believe this is a powerful trend for Apple’s growing iOS base. Therefore, we anticipate Apple should maintain dominant share of the tablet market in C2011 and C2012.”
A safe bet, given Apple’s WWDC claim of 25 million iPads sold to date, a figure that far exceeds the combined total sales of all tablet rivals. That said, competition in the space is increasing. Walkley thinks tablets from Samsung, Asus and Amazon are likely to emerge as the largest threats to Apple’s dominance, though they’ll need better app ecosystems and lower prices to really take it to the mat.
“Apple has priced the iPad 2 to the point where we believe it will be difficult for competitors to profitably compete, and our checks indicate both the Motorola XOOM and RIM Playbook have not sold well at current price points, as we believe competing tablets must sell at a substantial discount to the iPad 2. Given the iPad 2’s affordable prices, we believe competitors … have to sell their tablets at break-even or worse in order to capture stronger market share.”
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