That figure–10 million–seems awfully high for a consumer product that’s charting unknown territory. The tablet (or iSlate or iPad, if you prefer) would target an untapped market, if rumors of the device’s form and functionality are true. True, a few tablet-style browser/media players are either already on the market or are arriving shortly, but none has garnered anywhere near the attention of the Apple tablet.
I did some checking at Apple’s site to see what sales figures were like for the iPhone in its first year. Here’s the breakdown:
Q3 2007: 270,000 units
Q4 2007: 1,119,000
Q1 2008: 2,315,000
Q2 2008: 1,703,000
Add up the quarterly numbers, and Apple sold just over 5.4 million iPhones in the handset’s first year. (I also tried to get first-year numbers for the iPod, which launched in November 2001, but Apple’s financial reports didn’t break down iPod sales back then.)
If Lee’s blog post is to be believed, Apple plans to sell nearly twice as many tablets as it did iPhones in the product’s first year.
Call me a pessimist, but that’s hard to believe. Remember, the iPhone was entering a well-established cell phone market when it debuted in 2007. People had used cell phones for years. They liked cell phones and understood their value. Apple’s pitch back then: The iPhone is better than any other cell phone on the market. Millions of customers agreed, and the rest is history.
The tablet? Well, that’s a much harder sell. The iSlate is sort of a big iPod, but not really. It performs a lot of notebook-like functions, but it’s not really a notebook either.
My point is that Apple will need to educate its target market. And that’s why I seriously doubt the company expects to move 10 million tablets within a year.
Then again, Apple has proven the pundits wrong before. What do you think?
Contact Jeff Bertolucci via Twitter (@jbertolucci ) or at jbertolucci.blogspot.com.