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.
Broken up by months, the Nexus 7 is thought to have sold in 600,000 units during July (at least since the 15
th, when it actually started shipping), while August and September should boost that figure by 1.1 and 1.2 million respectively.
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?