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By Rob Garretson
Apple appears poised to maintain its solid lead in the
fledgling tablet PC market, as analysts tracking the start of the holiday
shopping season say the iPad was the big winner on Black Friday and over the
Thanksgiving weekend.
An array of Wall Street analysts following Apple issued
research notes on Monday reporting strong demand for iPad with little of the
supply shortages that have hampered sales in the past. Among them was Gene Munster
of Piper Jaffray, whose team performed seven person-hours of Black Friday
“channel checks” and estimates that Apple is selling nearly nine iPads per hour
and will move 5.5 million units in the quarter ending Dec. 31, compared with
4.2 million Macs.Munster saysiPad is reaching new demographics because of its
low cost relative to the Mac, calling it “the Mac for the masses.”
In contrast, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab,one of the few iPad
competitors in the market – unlike Research in Motion’s Playbook, HP’s WebOS-based
tablets, Cisco’s Cius and others slated for release next year –sold 600,000
units worldwide in its first month, on track for sales of 1 million in the
quarter, according to a report in the Korea Herald. Powered by Google’s Android
OS, the 7-inch Galaxy Tab is available in more than 30 countries in North
America, Europe and Asia.
“Most notable in our observations, we noticed that the iPad
is gaining traction (driven by lower price vs. the Mac) among demographics in
which the Mac has historically not been successful,” Munster wrote in a note to
investors. “The bottom line is that Apple’s addressable market is expanding
with the iPad.”
Apple’s iPad continues to dominate tablet sales although
inquiries about the Samsung Galaxy Tab are picking up, according to Doug Reid,
an analyst at StifelNicolaus. Apple’s iPhone sales also continue to be strong,
“despite evidence of growing momentum in Android devices led by Samsung Galaxy
S, HTC Droid Incredible and Motorola Droid X,” he adds, estimating that Apple
will sell 14.2 million iPhones in the December quarter.
The 5-10 percent discounts offered on most Apple products on
Black Friday – including an unusual $41 (6 percent) one-day discount on iPad –
may have spurred sales “during what is proving to be a stronger-than-expected
consumer spending season,” wrote Rajesh Ghai, an analyst at Think Equity.
“Despite modest discounts, our field checks indicate strong
foot traffic at Apple stores and third-party retailers … [and] particular
strong uptake of iPad, iPod and MacBook Air,” noted Shaw Wu, of Kaufman
Brothers. “While the Black Friday weekend typically accounts for approximately
10 percent of holiday sales, we nonetheless view it as a fairlyimportant
indicator of trends.”
The news of rosy consumer sales comes on the heels of a Dow
Jones News report that Apple has recruited five high
level enterprise sales staffers from Blackberry maker RIM in the last 18
months. Apple has been more aggressively targeting the enterprise market this
year and last month tapped
Unisys to help support enterprise and government customers.
On its most recent earnings call, the company said more than
80 percent of Fortune 500 companies are deploying or piloting the iPhone, and
more than 65 percent of the Fortune 100 are testing the iPad.
Among the RIM sales execs hired by
Apple isGeoff Perfect, RIM’s former head of strategic sales, along with several
former RIM global and strategic sales and account managers, according to the
Dow Jones story last week.
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