It appears that John Gruber of the blog DARING FIREBALL has done a bit of number crunching aside a couple of factoids released by Google on Android tablet sales starting at the beginning of time and running through last week. In a recent analyst call with Larry Page and Google Co, it was announced that approximately 135 million Android devices had been activated through the 6th month of the year. Impressive number, yes? There a bit of a doozy in the works here that’ll show you that tablets aren’t exactly winning this race at the moment – not by any means! That’s not to say that they won’t soon, on the other hand.

There is a factor in play here created by Google itself. Inside Android Developer, screen size “Xlarge” is defined as any screen 7 inches or larger. Tablets here are only defined as 7-inch or 10-inch. If we’re using Google’s numbers, if tablets are only those devices that are 7-inches or larger, there’s another number we need, provided by Google, that’ll tell us exactly how many tablets have been activated thus far. Google notes that only 0.9% of activated in-use devices are tablets.

With this number we can find that of the 135 million Android devices active today, a total of 1.21 million of them are tablets. That’s not bad until you compare it to the only group with more tablet sales, Apple, with their 28.73 million iPads sold, again through June. Consider that, then consider this:

Honeycomb is less than a year old, Android will soon be releasing a new version of their mobile OS in Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, an OS that will take both tablets and handsets to a new level. Also consider that of all the manufacturers lending their hand in the Android game, only a handful have created a single Android tablet, while only a couple have created more than one Android tablet.

What do you think? Will Android tablets rise to iPad levels, or are they doomed to stay small? Furthermore – do you think tablet sales will ever trump handset sales? Finally, what do you consider the smallest size for a tablet to be?

[via Daring Fireball]

14 COMMENTS

  1. Everyone I know who owns a tablet (with the exception of one Apple Fanboy) thinks they are just toys that they could do without if they wanted to. I think the slow growth is because people who buy Android are usually less obsessed with being seen as cool. Apple sold 24 million tablets because people see their friends with tablets and think oh I want to be seen as tech savy and cool, I’ll go get one.

  2. I think the Kindle tablet will do well.  I don’t really want an android tablet, but I love my Kindle.  The Dpad key has broken off and I’m looking for an upgrade.

  3. Don’t quote the apple fanboy. IDC says Android tablets have more than 34% of the market now and will reach more than 50% before Christmas, this means Android tablets are dominating in market share since Xoom faster than Android smartphones dominated over iPhone after Nexus One. http://www.eurodroid.com/2011/07/stats-android-accounted-for-34-of-global-tablet-sales-in-q1/

  4. Don’t quote the apple fanboy. IDC says Android tablets have more than 34% of the market now and will reach more than 50% before Christmas, this means Android tablets are dominating in market share since Xoom faster than Android smartphones dominated over iPhone after Nexus One. http://www.eurodroid.com/2011/07/stats-android-accounted-for-34-of-global-tablet-sales-in-q1/

  5. Don’t quote the apple fanboy. IDC says Android tablets have more than 34% of the market now and will reach more than 50% before Christmas, this means Android tablets are dominating in market share since Xoom faster than Android smartphones dominated over iPhone after Nexus One. http://www.eurodroid.com/2011/07/stats-android-accounted-for-34-of-global-tablet-sales-in-q1/

  6. Don’t quote the apple fanboy. IDC says Android tablets have more than 34% of the market now and will reach more than 50% before Christmas, this means Android tablets are dominating in market share since Xoom faster than Android smartphones dominated over iPhone after Nexus One. http://www.eurodroid.com/2011/07/stats-android-accounted-for-34-of-global-tablet-sales-in-q1/

  7. I think he’s misread the documentation – a 7″ tablet could be defined as _either_ xlarge _or_ large. I’d like to see how, say, a 7″ Samsung Galaxy Tab running 2.X would report itself (given that 2.X wasn’t designed for tablets at all). I’m guessing it would say “large”. 

  8. The problem is the sheer number of awful low end generic chinese import tablets.  People try those out, assume it is android that is crappy and go for an iPad instead.

  9. The problem is the sheer number of awful low end generic chinese import tablets.  People try those out, assume it is android that is crappy and go for an iPad instead.

  10. 5″ plus is a tablet. Android tablets wont rise to ipad levels cause by then tablets will be dead… they are not the future of computing. Some new hybrid device category will take over by the time android tablets catch up. Smart phones will always be the leader in mobile media consumption. People love all-in-one.

  11. 5″ plus is a tablet. Android tablets wont rise to ipad levels cause by then tablets will be dead… they are not the future of computing. Some new hybrid device category will take over by the time android tablets catch up. Smart phones will always be the leader in mobile media consumption. People love all-in-one.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.