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Dell: Android tablets will outpace iPad soon

By: , IntoMobile
Monday, April 25th, 2011 at 9:25 AM
Dell: Android tablets to outpace iPad in 18 months

Dell: Android tablets to outpace iPad in 18 monthsWhile the Apple iPad continues to sell well – it can’t even make enough to keep up with demand – Dell said it believes that Android tablets will outpace it in sales in the not-too-distant future. Naturally, Dell believes it will help contribute to that success with its Android-powered products.

When asked about the threat Android tablets pose to the Apple iPad, Dell CEO Michael Dell told the Wall Street Journal:

Not tomorrow. Not the next day. But again, if you look at 18 months ago, Android phones were like, “What is that?” And now there are more Android phones than iPhones. I don’t see any reason why the same won’t occur with Android tablets.

On the surface, this makes a lot of sense because the sheer number of Android-powered tablets may make it inevitable that this platform outsells the Apple iPad. Samsung, LG and a host of others are using Google’s platform for tablets but I believe the 18 month time frame may be a bit too soon.

While Android did surpass the iPhone in sales very quickly, everyone needs a phone and carriers have a massive influence on how these are distributed (at least in the United States). No one really needs a tablet right now and the carriers don’t have as much sway moving these are they do with phones.

While the Motorola XOOM and BlackBerry PlayBook sold well for new products in an unproven category, neither of these were in the same class as the iPad 2 when it comes to sales. Apple was somewhat disappointed that it only shipped 4.6 million tablets during its recent quarter but I’d be very surprised if that figured can be reached by a competitor over the course of 2011.

Please don’t label me a fanboy though, as I’m looking to replace my original iPad but nothing has quite seemed worth it. What do you think I should get?

[Via Wall Street Journal]

About The Author

Marin Perez

Marin Perez has torture tested cell phones and smartphones for industry leaders like CNET and InformationWeek. He remembers when 4G was just a screen on PowerPoint presentations and is fascinated with the amount of innovation out there. Marin has spent a lot of time with BlackBerry and Android but he finally broke down a bought an iPhone to see what all the hype's about. He also has too many tablets.

  • Joeye1

    iPad 2. Everything else sucks.

  • @Bstringy

    I’m looking forward to selling my ipad2, but like you, don’t see any other choices. Lenovo’s new product seems a little heavy. Galaxy Tab 8.9 might be the one.

  • http://antoinerjwright.com Antoine RJ Wright

    And how is this going to happen? Most of the Android tablet makers, all 100+ of them are hurting with component shortages out the wazoo. Those at aren’t don’t own their channels. And those waiting for Honeycomb and aren’t a preferred vendor as marked by Google have to get the scraps after all of that. Add to that, device costs, before and after service contracts, are still higher than the iPad in many markets. Carriers have already admitted to not having shelf space for smartphones, are they going to invent it for unproven tablets? And retail, not named Apple store, has been failing.

    In other words, I don’t think so.

  • http://twitter.com/jmauro1979 Joey Mauro

    An Asus Convertible of course….