Apple CEO: 'Amazon Fire didn't dent our sales'
If purchases of the successful-if-flawed Amazon Fire bit into iPad sales during the holiday season, Apple CEO Tim Cook didn't see it. "I looked at the data – particularly in the US – on a weekly basis after Amazon launched the Kindle Fire, and in my view there wasn't an obvious effect on the [iPad sales] numbers," Cook told …
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If you did have a big bite out your sales, would you...
1) Admit that there is a product taking away from your sales figures, thus alerting more of the public to this competitor and possibly loosing more sales.
2) Deny it has had any effect?
2 is always the popular option.
not quite right
You forgot to add to point 2 - massage the numbers in your favour, then flood the market with "opinion polls" and "statistics" that all favour you over your competitor.
(not to say that apple invented this or are the only ones to do so, but they are the true masters of spin, leagues ahead of anyone else in that matter)
If you were running a plc and a competitor was having an effect would you
A) admit it
B) use some guarded language to admit some effect, but not too much
C) lie and go to jail
@Wize
iPad sales Q4 2010: 7.3m
iPad sales Q4 2011: 11m
As Amazon don't release actual figures it does make the analysis awkward, but they have said they are selling "well over 1 million Kindle devices every month". So, assuming best case scenario that all of those were the Fire in December and that they wouldn't say "over 1m" if it was in fact over 2m, we can quite safely assume the actual sales are no more than 2m at best.
That means it is possible that Apple might have sold 13m iPads in Q4, but that 2m people opted for the Fire instead. Given that Apple have sold ~4m iPads more than the same period last year anyway, I can see how it would be difficult to spot a downward trend caused by the Fire (at least at this stage).
But I'm sure you're right and the guy is just plain lying.
In my house
There is one PC, 3 iPads, 1 iPhone, 1 Windows Phone, a Kindle 4 and a Wii.
That's just 2 adults and 2 children of 7 & 5.
I'm not sure what point I'm making other than there's going to be an awful lot of mixed households out there and these things seem to be creating their own niche.
we're all unique snowflakes
Everyone is different. I had an android phone, as does my wife. We have an iPod touch. We have a 4 year old mid range laptop and a 3 year old netbook. These suit our needs just fine.
Given the choice, i opted for an android phone, because the total cost throughout its life was a lot less than the iPhone, while the features i use are similar enough between Android and iOS that it makes little difference to me. Same with my wife. However, that said, we both prefer the feel of iOS.
Having played with a couple of iPads at friends houses i can say that using one to browse the internet or watch iPlayer etc seems much less formal than sitting with a laptop or netbook and doing the same. You feel less hidden away and more part of the group and the conversation going on around you.
If i were to get a tablet, which I am sure i will at some point to replace the aging netbook which gets used less and less these days, I would get an iPad. I don't need it to be expandable with a thousand ports and memory card slots. I have all that on my netbook and laptop and dont use them. I just need a window to the internet with plenty of options for quality apps that work.
A pro photographer i know has an android tablet (not sure which) that has usb ports and sd card reader, and he uses it to review photos on a bigger screen while he's out taking pictures. But he also has an iPad that he gives to newly married couples who come around to review their photos, because its easy to load up with the pictures and just leave them with it to flick through, and people feel comfortable with it.
There is someone out there for pretty much every product you can think of. You cant expect that one product will suit all needs. And you shouln't shout down anyone who doesnt want the product that you think best suits their lifestyle, etc.
RE: we're all unique...
"Having played with a couple of iPads at friends houses i can say that using one to browse the internet or watch iPlayer etc seems much less formal than sitting with a laptop or netbook and doing the same."
You mean the fact that you CANNOT browse the web from your iOS unless the page can serve up a different version for your crippled device, without all Flash, unlike on a laptop where all things "just work"?
" You feel less hidden away and more part of the group and the conversation going on around you."
Aye, the Apple BS, poured over everything, in thick layers, only to cover all the stupid, false crap Jobs was famous to produce regularly in defense of his cash cow Walled Garden model.
You act as if the majority of websites use flash for anything more than ads.
No flash messages for content in my experience are quite rare.
Any site relying upon a plug in, especially one as frustratingly buggy and hoggy as flash doesnt have anything worthwhile on it, from my experience.
Conspicous consumption
As a photo viewer, an iPad is nothing special. It might even be a bit overpriced. As someone trying to sell your services in an environment of heavy conspicuous consumption (newlyweds) you might want to show off the Apple product just to keep up appearances.
An Android is actually the easier device to deal with if you are moving things around. There's nothing like iTunes to get in the way. Just plug it in and drag and drop.
This is about making an impression on the kind of people willing to spend 6 figures on a wedding.
The Amish of California
Flash is used for content. There's just no denying that. You might as well try to claim that the world is flat.
When I am browsing the web, I expect to be able to browse any website and not just ones that the cult leader has declared acceptable. It may suck that Flash is a pig. It sucks even more not to have the right to choose.
Indeed
Flash is used for content, but its almost always for advertising content. I can live without that.
Flash should only be used in sparring cases - if you're running a page full of static pictures and text in Flash, there is something wrong with you, not with your non flash using viewers.
It's more than hilarious when Jobtards go over the posts...
...and vote up those few lunatic posts raving about the iPad as "revolutionary" (sic! :D) and vote down everything that's less than that. :D
Insecurity about your $500-$800 investment into a device that cannot even browser ~80%+ of the free web (no Flash for you, sorry), instead forces you to spend more on stupid apps, only to gain access to the same thing the web offers everybody else for free? Most likely.
Can't understand this obsession with Flash. Care to explain what we're missing?
@ Levente Szileszky
Your ravings might make more sense if it wasn't for the fact that Adobe have announced that the version of Flash they produced for Android ICS is the end - the next version of Android will not have Flash either.
Amazon Fire didn't dent our sales...
Let me finish that for him: "...yet"
iPad is great for web browsing ..
I got an iPad because for a vary narrow usage, cramming dozens of programming pdf's into an ebook reader. Kindle sucks at anything other than fiction, I read fiction on my kindle on an almost daily basis, but trying to read a technical manual on it is horrid. Carrying a dozen physical books is kind of bulky, reading on a laptop just doesn't cut it for me.
I didn't expect to like the iPad much, was presently surprised and now its my favorite computer product.
I'm really glad I bought the iPad before the $100 HP Tablet sell off, because I would have stuck with that and likely never tried and iPad. I wouldn't know what I was missing.
I see the Fire more as competition for the iPod Touch than an iPad.
The zen of cheapness
...so you are basically saying that you think a cheap but craptacular product would still be good enough to prevent you from buying a much more expensive alternative.
That seems to flatly contradict the spin and damage control coming from Apple.
You are kidding right?
Damage control coming from APPLE? Have you seen their stock price today?
Most companies wish they had that kind of "damage"!
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