It’s funny how Android tablets have turned the table against Apple’s iPad just when we’ve almost given up on that fight. After the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7’s booming hits, I think that no one can deny Android is on the rise. Apple might still be king of tablets, but both Amazon’s and Google’s 7-inchers rocked the Cupertino-based company’s throne. We hope this will spark a revolution of much bigger dimensions than we Android fans could have dreamed of a year ago.
However, while we know that the Nexus 7 was met with an almost unprecedented high degree of enthusiasm, we’re still in a blur about the tab’s actual sales. Nobody has even dared to come up with estimates, while predictions for the future have been entirely out of the question.
The editorial team over at Tech-Thoughts.net has been brave enough to venture a sales estimate for the Nexus 7, as well as a prediction for up to the end of the year. The figures are obviously to be taken with a grain of salt, but they are a bit more than just educated guesses, so they have to be at least acknowledged.
Starting from a Digitimes report about supplier shipments of touch panels for the Nexus 7 and using a bunch of other numbers and reports from the past, Sameer Singh has estimated that Google will be selling around 2.9 million Nexus 7 tabs by the end of Q3 2012.
This part of the report sounds the most plausible, as it is (also) based on hard evidence. As for the Q4 2012 estimate, that’s a little less trustworthy, being based more on assumptions and suppositions.
If you don’t mind that, though, you should know that Google is expected to actually sell more Nexus 7 devices between the months of October and December. This is estimated at being between 3 and 5 million units shipped to tech users across the Globe, depending on a few very important factors, including the competition.
We’re almost certain that Apple and Amazon will make some strong pushes towards the 7-inch tablet market by the end of 2012, and both the new Kindle Fire(s) and the iPad Mini could seriously undercut the Nexus 7’s sales success.
Then again, Q4 is usually a thriving time for everybody involved in the tech world, with the holiday season pumping up sales. Taking both those things into consideration, Tech-Thoughts is estimating that Google’s sales figures for the Nexus 7 might be anywhere between 6 and 8 million during 2012 .
Now, is that any kind of record, you might ask. Far from it, especially if we are to compare those numbers with iPad sales. If we are to compare them with Amazon’s Kindle Fire sales figures, though, things might actually end up tied.
The Fire supposedly shipped in 3.9 million units during Q4 2011, its first fiscal quarter of existence, while Q1 2012 saw that figure drop to only 1.8 million. Summing those two numbers up, we get around 5.7 million unit sales for the Fire’s first two fiscal quarters, which would be below the Nexus 7’s estimated sales, even if they only hit the minimum prediction of Tech-Thoughts.
It is true that Amazon’s 7-incher was released on November 15, halfway into Q4 2011. But on the other hand, that meant the tablet was hotter than hot during the holiday season. That said, the Nexus 7 can easily beat the Kindle Fire’s sales figures, or at least they will end up tied. It’s likely that we’re dealing with another big hit from Android in its war with Apple.
Anyone care to comment on today’s estimates? Do you think the Nexus 7 will in fact sell in 6 million units by the end of 2012? More? Less?
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