9 ms·

Asus says Nexus 7 sales are close to 1 million per month

124 points by xhrpost 14y ago

josteink 14y ago
And with Nexus 10 looking pretty damn sweet, I guess 2012 can be declared the year when Android tablets finally took hold. With all the wonderful things Android-phones has done for the general smart-phone, it was about time we had the same revolution happen in tablet-space.
- Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
  You mean Android tablets other than the Fire which sold a boatload last year?
  - WrkInProgress 14y ago
    Are there any official sales figures on the Fire ?
    - Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
      No, but estimates put the number as high as 5 million in 2011 alone. But neither Amazon nor Google report specific sales numbers.
- highace 14y ago
  I've been using an iphone and an ipad for the last 2 years, but I've recently bought a nexus 7... and I love it. The ipad has since been sold on.
Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
Those sales, while not iPad league, aren't too shabby for a single Android device and, significantly, seem to be growing. Will be interesting to see what the iPad Mini might do to Nexus 7 sales. Certainly there are going to be a bunch of them that are people who specifically want an Android tablet, and there are going to be a bunch who are highly price sensitive (question there being are the newer Kindles having an impact) who aren't going to being looking at the new iPad, but there will also be people who just like the form factor for whom the Mini might be interesting. Short term though I suspect we'll see what we've seen in the smartphone market - plenty of overall market growth meaning plenty of unit sales growth for everyone (except RIM) which will keep the market interesting.
- eumenides1 14y ago
  FYI, Apple sold an average of 5 million iPads a month in 2012. From TechCrunch "On the Apple side, the company sold nearly 60 million iPads during its 2012 fiscal year. But that’s a different market, one that Apple forged itself. How the iPad mini performs remains a separate question, even though Apple on stage at its event last week framed this as essentially a way to replicate and continue that existing success. Still, the iPad mini goes on sale in many more countries with an ecosystem that’s much more globally available than its small tablet competition, so it’s fair to assume Apple will beat competitor device sales, but by how much remains a key question."
- Shivetya 14y ago
  I am looking to pick up a Nexus 7 this week to evaluate its gift potential. There are two areas where it falls behind the iPad mini for me. First is the Apple App store appears to be in much better shape. I can get around that pretty easily, the second is the lack of back facing camera. The reason the second issue stands out is that I would like to gift these to my niece and nephew. When using my iPad or their parents smart phones they love to use the camera to take pictures. So I am was a bit disappointed over the omission. The main point in the Nexus 7's favor for me is its price. So the make or break will be software, namely some learning apps and games. I would prefer to avoid buying an Apple product; I own many; based on their emphasis on lawsuits recently but they do have some features on their tablet that are hard to pass up and the old adage reworded for our age probably holds true, no one will be disappointed getting an iPad for Christmas. (the old adage of no one was fired for buying IBM)
  - Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
    How old are your niece and nephew? One area Apple have a significant advantage is with kids who've grown up with iPod Touches (or iPods Touch for the pedants) and are therefore familiar with iOS and the apps available on the app store. If I were looking for a present (a very generous present I might add) for kids between 8 and 18, I'd be hyper aware that they may have opinions on what they want and be guided by that.
    - 14y ago
Jabbles 14y ago
The article raises a good point. Should we compare this to the iPad? (iPad 3?) It's a different size and price point. The Kindle Fire is the only other tablet with as high a profile as the Nexus 7, and we don't have sales numbers on that, either (which makes me wonder how they know the total number of tablets). I'm glad it's been successful as I'm quite pleased with mine, but I'm not sure this announcement tells us anything at all (even if it had clear numbers).
panacea 14y ago
Doesn't surprise me. They got there (the 7 inch space that I'm confident Apple always had their eyes on in their roadmap), before Apple, with a competent device and great hardware. And I mean, really great hardware... The rubberized backing but still has nice proportions for everything else, makes it akin to the equal and opposite to the latest iPhone. Both awesome hardware designs in their own right. I think the Nexus 7 bests the iPad Mini in hardware design, whilst the iPad 4 still trounces the ugly Nexus 10.
- bryanlarsen 14y ago
  Have you actually seen a Nexus 10 in person? Early reviews are praising the Nexus 10 hardware design, claiming that it's much easier to hold one handed than the iPad.
- Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
  When I first saw the Nexus 7 my reaction was "that's a nice looking tablet". I think I'd even go as far as agreeing with you that it edges the look of the iPad Mini. Conversely when I first saw the Nexus 10, my reaction was "MY EYES, MY EYES". I have no idea whether the lawyers had waded in a told them to make it look less Apple like or whether someone was just having an off day, but cosmetically, to me at least, it's a disaster. (Note, I'm going on looks alone, it may be a very functional design but man, is it ugly).
Cherian_Abraham 14y ago
Great news for Google, except the hardware quality doth suffer. I had to RMA my first one, as the audio jack was spotty and only outputted one channel. The second one arrived with exactly the same issue and a screen that wobbled. RMA'd that one to get a third one, and saw that it was one of the early batches that had a ton of issues and I didn't bother keeping it to find out what was wrong with it. So Google, if it has any hopes for displacing iPad, needs to clamp down on quality issues with its suppliers and make sure that these products match up to the incumbents they are hell bent on displacing.
- acedanger 14y ago
  The quality issues really fall on Asus, not Google. Asus is the hardware manufacturer. Besides that, I agree. My first Nexus 7 had the "wobbly" screen, but only on the left-hand side, about mid-ways up.
  - czhiddy 14y ago
    The issues do lie with Asus, but your average consumer isn't going to make that distinction. All they see is Google/Nexus branding.
macspoofing 14y ago
It's a great device. It's nice to see Google (and Asus) being rewarded for it.
potkor 14y ago
They aren't keeping up with demand. Eg. in Finland they've been constantly sold out since it launched a few weeks ago (same time with Scandinavia). The 16GB version is 269.90 EUR / 350.68 USD, and doesn't include the $25 Play voucher, the 8GB version is not sold here at all. I suspect there is one set of primary-market/trend-setter countries where Google is selling it with near-zero margins and has first cut of shipments, and then the rest of the world where Asus sells it through their retailers and collects a lucrative profit margin.
- vetinari 14y ago
  Here in Slovakia, Asus sells it directly (without Google) and it is 229 EUR for 16GB version. The upcoming 32GB version is going to be for the same amount and the 32GB+3G version will be 299 EUR. It looks like it is just retailers in Finland who are bloating the price.
  - hollerith 14y ago
    Retailers or tax collectors.
- Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
  How does that price comparison compare with what you'd normally see for tech products? What would an entry level retina iPad cost in Finland for instance? I only ask as I know in the UK we always get the impression that we're being shafted when we look at US prices but it's not that there are higher profit margins, it's more about higher taxes, lower volumes and so on.
  - zurn 14y ago
    Retina iPad starts at 509 EUR (660.22 USD). So the N7 has a much bigger cost markup even before accounting for the missing Play voucher.
- listic 14y ago
  Has Nexus 7 actually officially launched in Finland? It isn't mentioned in the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_7 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_7
jusben1369 14y ago
One of my pet peeve's in articles like this is to change the metrics midway. Specifically, all Nexus references are made to monthly sales. So you see things like "600,000 per month" or "nearly 1 million per month" Switch to Apple sales and it's "15 million in Q3" Holy smoke that's huge compared to Nexus!! Yet imagine another headline stating "Nexus taking nearly 20% of marketshare from Apple iPad!" 1 million per month and ramping = 3 million a quarter which is 20% of 15 million and so forth. I have neither an iPad nor a Nexus 7 so no dog in this fight (MacBook Air and Nexus S phone) I just wanted to point out the annoyance when you use different measuring units within the one article. It can really distort the outlook. Final note - more impressive to me than the total number sold is the ramp. This is significant month over month momentum since launching. I suspect the iPad Mini - now that the wait is over- will either a) drive sales higher based on the price/value differential or b) knee cap momentum. Based purely on a sample case of 1 (me) I held off the Nexus 7 until the iPad Mini arrived. The iOS and ecosystem still beats Android but based on the price differential I'll go with the Nexus 7 now. The gaps that exist between the two are continuing to close due to where both are in their respective life cycles.
- pooriaazimi 14y ago
  That's why I always wait for http://asymco.com http://asymco.com to do the math and fact-check the data and compile a pretty chart.
- hkmurakami 14y ago
  nitpick: it's actually 3MM/18MM = 16.7% of Market, assuming that the tablet universe only consists of the iPad and Nexus7.
- drivebyacct2 14y ago
  Isn't that just to reflect the source data?
metatronscube 14y ago
Does that include the replacements and repairs, because I have had a 'new' nexus 4 times now.
- bookwormAT 14y ago
  My guess is that replacements are new devices (which replace your old device), while repairs are not new devices , but instead your original device, repaired.
- bobbles 14y ago
  My friend had his Nexus 7 in his pocket (as he always had done) and just the process of sitting on the couch caused enough pressure to destroy the screen. Google / ASUS provided no support and he just went and bought a whole new device (he was told the price of repair was basically the same as replacement). Unlike most of the devices I've seen when the screen was cracked (really just a hairline crack across the face), it became completely unusable.
  - metatronscube 14y ago
    Yeah I have had that experience about 4 times now, like you said, when cracked its completely useless. I broke the first one by sitting the device on the top of a stack of books and research material and then proceeding to pick that bundle up. My thumb holding the nexus 7 and that was enough to put a split from corner to corner. I have given up on the device and Android. I went back to using my old ipad 1 which has been dropped and thrown about for 2-3 years now and not even a scratch or buff on the back and certainly no cracks or chips on the screen. I made the mistake of getting a nexus 7 for my brother and both parents and they have ALL had problems with it (each was about £209 in the UK). They are all getting ipads now.
mtgx 14y ago
There is probably a bottleneck in sales, too, because Nexus 7 is only available for sale in like under 10 countries, while the iPad is available in many more.
nicholassmith 14y ago
I'm always slightly curious about these when they appear, when they say they're selling X amount per month, do they mean they've sold X amount per month that are in consumers hands, or X amount per month where so many are in consumer hands, so many are in retail supply chains? Same goes for Apple, but to a larger extent they manage sales through their own channels. Obviously N7 is delayed shipment in many places so I imagine a lot are in peoples hands, still curious.
- GauntletWizard 14y ago
  Do you think Retailers are stocking up on phones that aren't selling? That each month, fifty thousand electronic devices are stored in stockrooms, never to be seen again? The units sold to consumers closely resembles the tail of current shipped units, just delayed a bit; the larger the number and the bigger ticket the item the closer those curves are.
  - nicholassmith 14y ago
    Occasionally yeah, retail stores will buy stock that may end up dead. Obviously not at the moment as they can't keep them in stock, I'm just curious whether either company is showing sales figures including the retail supply chain bought ones as well.
  - _djo_ 14y ago
    It's a fair question, as channel stuffing is not unheard of. The HP TouchPad, for instance, shipped far more units than were sold to customers. At one point Best Buy sat on over 200 000 unsold TouchPads that were returned to HP and eventually priced at just $99 each to get rid of the inventory. With that said, I think the correlation between shipping numbers and sales for the Nexus 4 is probably close, considering the clear demand for the phone.
- notatoad 14y ago
  The blogs like to make a distinction between the two numbers, but realistically there isn't one except for in extreme cases like the HP touchpad. Retail sales might happen a month after wholesale sales, but they are still sales. If a retailer isn't selling it's stock, it isn't going to re-order and that will be reflected in wholesale numbers.
robotmay 14y ago
If anyone in the UK is after one, eBuyer are currently doing a pretty nice deal; 32GB Nexus 7 for £200 (RRP of the 16GB I think): http://www.ebuyer.com/398430-asus-google-nexus-7-32gb-tablet-pc-90ok0mi1101090u http://www.ebuyer.com/398430-asus-google-nexus-7-32gb-tablet...
programminggeek 14y ago
Note that selling 1 million a month is obviously great for Android, but it's not even close to the same as say selling 1 million Galaxy S3's per month. Asus and Google have both basically said that they are selling the Nexus 7 at break even or a small loss. Google pretty much has to do this, but it's not exactly helping their bottom line in the same way that Apple selling 1 million iPad Mini's helps Apple's bottom line. At $130 profit per device (which is probably a bit low) Apple would profit $1.56 billion per year with the same sales volume, vs basically $0 per year for Google/Asus. It might not be all about profit for everybody, but $1.56 billion buys a lot of R&D, advanced manufacturing, etc. which puts Apple in an even better strategic position on both the product and operations side of the business, which continues to drive profit.
- TwoBit 14y ago
  At this point I think that Apple actually has so much cash that they really can't put any more of it towards further use in R&D, etc.
- mistercheese 14y ago
  I think you're already somewhat saying this, but to clarify, there's a big difference between where the money comes from with selling an iPad vs. a Nexus 7. 1) Google doesn't make money on the selling of the hardware, but with customers using their services and getting locked in their platform. They not only have more "billboards" for ads, but more ways to extract more data, and more meaningful data about its users. More data, more targetted ads, more money. (Google Play may also make some money selling digital goods, a la Kindle Fire) 2) This lessens their reliance on other platforms/browsers to use Google as their default search engine. On a non-Google browser, they would have to pay to be the default search engine (Firefox/Safari), or even worse, not be the default search engine at all (IE). 3) A last, small advantage is that with browser/device marketshare they can push for particular web technologies that are beneficial for Google. So it's not entirely accurate to say that it's $0 per year for Google; someone has definitely made the calculations for #1 and #2 before pricing the Nexus 7.
- guelo 14y ago
  As long as Google remains a healthy giant company profits should not matter to anyone except Google and Apple investors. For everybody else this is great news. For android developers and users it means that there is more incentive for making tablet apps. For Apple and Amazon users it means that there is serious competition which should mean lower prices and continued innovation going forward.
mchristoff 14y ago
Let's not forget all of these N7s come with a $25 Play credit. This is great for Android devs. We've seen a big increase in sales since it went on sale this summer.
theDaveB 14y ago
Got my son a Nexus 7 for his birthday and he loves it, am impressed as well (currently have a iPad 1). One thing I don't get though is how some top games are free on android and cost money on iOS ? Bad Piggies for instance, is 1.99 for iPad and free on Android and I can't see any ads on it or that it's a cut down version. Dave

124 points by xhrpost 14y ago

And with Nexus 10 looking pretty damn sweet, I guess 2012 can be declared the year when Android tablets finally took hold. With all the wonderful things Android-phones has done for the general smart-phone, it was about time we had the same revolution happen in tablet-space.

Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
You mean Android tablets other than the Fire which sold a boatload last year?
- WrkInProgress 14y ago
  Are there any official sales figures on the Fire ?
  - Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
    No, but estimates put the number as high as 5 million in 2011 alone. But neither Amazon nor Google report specific sales numbers.
highace 14y ago
I've been using an iphone and an ipad for the last 2 years, but I've recently bought a nexus 7... and I love it. The ipad has since been sold on.

Tyrannosaurs 14y ago

Those sales, while not iPad league, aren't too shabby for a single Android device and, significantly, seem to be growing. Will be interesting to see what the iPad Mini might do to Nexus 7 sales. Certainly there are going to be a bunch of them that are people who specifically want an Android tablet, and there are going to be a bunch who are highly price sensitive (question there being are the newer Kindles having an impact) who aren't going to being looking at the new iPad, but there will also be people who just like the form factor for whom the Mini might be interesting. Short term though I suspect we'll see what we've seen in the smartphone market - plenty of overall market growth meaning plenty of unit sales growth for everyone (except RIM) which will keep the market interesting.

eumenides1 14y ago
FYI, Apple sold an average of 5 million iPads a month in 2012. From TechCrunch "On the Apple side, the company sold nearly 60 million iPads during its 2012 fiscal year. But that’s a different market, one that Apple forged itself. How the iPad mini performs remains a separate question, even though Apple on stage at its event last week framed this as essentially a way to replicate and continue that existing success. Still, the iPad mini goes on sale in many more countries with an ecosystem that’s much more globally available than its small tablet competition, so it’s fair to assume Apple will beat competitor device sales, but by how much remains a key question."
Shivetya 14y ago
I am looking to pick up a Nexus 7 this week to evaluate its gift potential. There are two areas where it falls behind the iPad mini for me. First is the Apple App store appears to be in much better shape. I can get around that pretty easily, the second is the lack of back facing camera. The reason the second issue stands out is that I would like to gift these to my niece and nephew. When using my iPad or their parents smart phones they love to use the camera to take pictures. So I am was a bit disappointed over the omission. The main point in the Nexus 7's favor for me is its price. So the make or break will be software, namely some learning apps and games. I would prefer to avoid buying an Apple product; I own many; based on their emphasis on lawsuits recently but they do have some features on their tablet that are hard to pass up and the old adage reworded for our age probably holds true, no one will be disappointed getting an iPad for Christmas. (the old adage of no one was fired for buying IBM)
- Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
  How old are your niece and nephew? One area Apple have a significant advantage is with kids who've grown up with iPod Touches (or iPods Touch for the pedants) and are therefore familiar with iOS and the apps available on the app store. If I were looking for a present (a very generous present I might add) for kids between 8 and 18, I'd be hyper aware that they may have opinions on what they want and be guided by that.
  - 14y ago

Jabbles 14y ago

The article raises a good point. Should we compare this to the iPad? (iPad 3?) It's a different size and price point. The Kindle Fire is the only other tablet with as high a profile as the Nexus 7, and we don't have sales numbers on that, either (which makes me wonder how they know the total number of tablets). I'm glad it's been successful as I'm quite pleased with mine, but I'm not sure this announcement tells us anything at all (even if it had clear numbers).

panacea 14y ago

Doesn't surprise me. They got there (the 7 inch space that I'm confident Apple always had their eyes on in their roadmap), before Apple, with a competent device and great hardware. And I mean, really great hardware... The rubberized backing but still has nice proportions for everything else, makes it akin to the equal and opposite to the latest iPhone. Both awesome hardware designs in their own right. I think the Nexus 7 bests the iPad Mini in hardware design, whilst the iPad 4 still trounces the ugly Nexus 10.

bryanlarsen 14y ago
Have you actually seen a Nexus 10 in person? Early reviews are praising the Nexus 10 hardware design, claiming that it's much easier to hold one handed than the iPad.
Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
When I first saw the Nexus 7 my reaction was "that's a nice looking tablet". I think I'd even go as far as agreeing with you that it edges the look of the iPad Mini. Conversely when I first saw the Nexus 10, my reaction was "MY EYES, MY EYES". I have no idea whether the lawyers had waded in a told them to make it look less Apple like or whether someone was just having an off day, but cosmetically, to me at least, it's a disaster. (Note, I'm going on looks alone, it may be a very functional design but man, is it ugly).

Cherian_Abraham 14y ago

Great news for Google, except the hardware quality doth suffer. I had to RMA my first one, as the audio jack was spotty and only outputted one channel. The second one arrived with exactly the same issue and a screen that wobbled. RMA'd that one to get a third one, and saw that it was one of the early batches that had a ton of issues and I didn't bother keeping it to find out what was wrong with it. So Google, if it has any hopes for displacing iPad, needs to clamp down on quality issues with its suppliers and make sure that these products match up to the incumbents they are hell bent on displacing.

acedanger 14y ago
The quality issues really fall on Asus, not Google. Asus is the hardware manufacturer. Besides that, I agree. My first Nexus 7 had the "wobbly" screen, but only on the left-hand side, about mid-ways up.
- czhiddy 14y ago
  The issues do lie with Asus, but your average consumer isn't going to make that distinction. All they see is Google/Nexus branding.

macspoofing 14y ago

It's a great device. It's nice to see Google (and Asus) being rewarded for it.

potkor 14y ago

They aren't keeping up with demand. Eg. in Finland they've been constantly sold out since it launched a few weeks ago (same time with Scandinavia). The 16GB version is 269.90 EUR / 350.68 USD, and doesn't include the $25 Play voucher, the 8GB version is not sold here at all. I suspect there is one set of primary-market/trend-setter countries where Google is selling it with near-zero margins and has first cut of shipments, and then the rest of the world where Asus sells it through their retailers and collects a lucrative profit margin.

vetinari 14y ago
Here in Slovakia, Asus sells it directly (without Google) and it is 229 EUR for 16GB version. The upcoming 32GB version is going to be for the same amount and the 32GB+3G version will be 299 EUR. It looks like it is just retailers in Finland who are bloating the price.
- hollerith 14y ago
  Retailers or tax collectors.
Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
How does that price comparison compare with what you'd normally see for tech products? What would an entry level retina iPad cost in Finland for instance? I only ask as I know in the UK we always get the impression that we're being shafted when we look at US prices but it's not that there are higher profit margins, it's more about higher taxes, lower volumes and so on.
- zurn 14y ago
  Retina iPad starts at 509 EUR (660.22 USD). So the N7 has a much bigger cost markup even before accounting for the missing Play voucher.
listic 14y ago
Has Nexus 7 actually officially launched in Finland? It isn't mentioned in the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_7 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_7

jusben1369 14y ago

One of my pet peeve's in articles like this is to change the metrics midway. Specifically, all Nexus references are made to monthly sales. So you see things like "600,000 per month" or "nearly 1 million per month" Switch to Apple sales and it's "15 million in Q3" Holy smoke that's huge compared to Nexus!! Yet imagine another headline stating "Nexus taking nearly 20% of marketshare from Apple iPad!" 1 million per month and ramping = 3 million a quarter which is 20% of 15 million and so forth. I have neither an iPad nor a Nexus 7 so no dog in this fight (MacBook Air and Nexus S phone) I just wanted to point out the annoyance when you use different measuring units within the one article. It can really distort the outlook. Final note - more impressive to me than the total number sold is the ramp. This is significant month over month momentum since launching. I suspect the iPad Mini - now that the wait is over- will either a) drive sales higher based on the price/value differential or b) knee cap momentum. Based purely on a sample case of 1 (me) I held off the Nexus 7 until the iPad Mini arrived. The iOS and ecosystem still beats Android but based on the price differential I'll go with the Nexus 7 now. The gaps that exist between the two are continuing to close due to where both are in their respective life cycles.

pooriaazimi 14y ago
That's why I always wait for http://asymco.com http://asymco.com to do the math and fact-check the data and compile a pretty chart.
hkmurakami 14y ago
nitpick: it's actually 3MM/18MM = 16.7% of Market, assuming that the tablet universe only consists of the iPad and Nexus7.
drivebyacct2 14y ago
Isn't that just to reflect the source data?

metatronscube 14y ago

Does that include the replacements and repairs, because I have had a 'new' nexus 4 times now.

bookwormAT 14y ago
My guess is that replacements are new devices (which replace your old device), while repairs are not new devices , but instead your original device, repaired.
bobbles 14y ago
My friend had his Nexus 7 in his pocket (as he always had done) and just the process of sitting on the couch caused enough pressure to destroy the screen. Google / ASUS provided no support and he just went and bought a whole new device (he was told the price of repair was basically the same as replacement). Unlike most of the devices I've seen when the screen was cracked (really just a hairline crack across the face), it became completely unusable.
- metatronscube 14y ago
  Yeah I have had that experience about 4 times now, like you said, when cracked its completely useless. I broke the first one by sitting the device on the top of a stack of books and research material and then proceeding to pick that bundle up. My thumb holding the nexus 7 and that was enough to put a split from corner to corner. I have given up on the device and Android. I went back to using my old ipad 1 which has been dropped and thrown about for 2-3 years now and not even a scratch or buff on the back and certainly no cracks or chips on the screen. I made the mistake of getting a nexus 7 for my brother and both parents and they have ALL had problems with it (each was about £209 in the UK). They are all getting ipads now.

mtgx 14y ago

There is probably a bottleneck in sales, too, because Nexus 7 is only available for sale in like under 10 countries, while the iPad is available in many more.

nicholassmith 14y ago

I'm always slightly curious about these when they appear, when they say they're selling X amount per month, do they mean they've sold X amount per month that are in consumers hands, or X amount per month where so many are in consumer hands, so many are in retail supply chains? Same goes for Apple, but to a larger extent they manage sales through their own channels. Obviously N7 is delayed shipment in many places so I imagine a lot are in peoples hands, still curious.

GauntletWizard 14y ago
Do you think Retailers are stocking up on phones that aren't selling? That each month, fifty thousand electronic devices are stored in stockrooms, never to be seen again? The units sold to consumers closely resembles the tail of current shipped units, just delayed a bit; the larger the number and the bigger ticket the item the closer those curves are.
- nicholassmith 14y ago
  Occasionally yeah, retail stores will buy stock that may end up dead. Obviously not at the moment as they can't keep them in stock, I'm just curious whether either company is showing sales figures including the retail supply chain bought ones as well.
- _djo_ 14y ago
  It's a fair question, as channel stuffing is not unheard of. The HP TouchPad, for instance, shipped far more units than were sold to customers. At one point Best Buy sat on over 200 000 unsold TouchPads that were returned to HP and eventually priced at just $99 each to get rid of the inventory. With that said, I think the correlation between shipping numbers and sales for the Nexus 4 is probably close, considering the clear demand for the phone.
notatoad 14y ago
The blogs like to make a distinction between the two numbers, but realistically there isn't one except for in extreme cases like the HP touchpad. Retail sales might happen a month after wholesale sales, but they are still sales. If a retailer isn't selling it's stock, it isn't going to re-order and that will be reflected in wholesale numbers.

robotmay 14y ago

If anyone in the UK is after one, eBuyer are currently doing a pretty nice deal; 32GB Nexus 7 for £200 (RRP of the 16GB I think): http://www.ebuyer.com/398430-asus-google-nexus-7-32gb-tablet-pc-90ok0mi1101090u http://www.ebuyer.com/398430-asus-google-nexus-7-32gb-tablet...

programminggeek 14y ago

Note that selling 1 million a month is obviously great for Android, but it's not even close to the same as say selling 1 million Galaxy S3's per month. Asus and Google have both basically said that they are selling the Nexus 7 at break even or a small loss. Google pretty much has to do this, but it's not exactly helping their bottom line in the same way that Apple selling 1 million iPad Mini's helps Apple's bottom line. At $130 profit per device (which is probably a bit low) Apple would profit $1.56 billion per year with the same sales volume, vs basically $0 per year for Google/Asus. It might not be all about profit for everybody, but $1.56 billion buys a lot of R&D, advanced manufacturing, etc. which puts Apple in an even better strategic position on both the product and operations side of the business, which continues to drive profit.

TwoBit 14y ago
At this point I think that Apple actually has so much cash that they really can't put any more of it towards further use in R&D, etc.
mistercheese 14y ago
I think you're already somewhat saying this, but to clarify, there's a big difference between where the money comes from with selling an iPad vs. a Nexus 7. 1) Google doesn't make money on the selling of the hardware, but with customers using their services and getting locked in their platform. They not only have more "billboards" for ads, but more ways to extract more data, and more meaningful data about its users. More data, more targetted ads, more money. (Google Play may also make some money selling digital goods, a la Kindle Fire) 2) This lessens their reliance on other platforms/browsers to use Google as their default search engine. On a non-Google browser, they would have to pay to be the default search engine (Firefox/Safari), or even worse, not be the default search engine at all (IE). 3) A last, small advantage is that with browser/device marketshare they can push for particular web technologies that are beneficial for Google. So it's not entirely accurate to say that it's $0 per year for Google; someone has definitely made the calculations for #1 and #2 before pricing the Nexus 7.
guelo 14y ago
As long as Google remains a healthy giant company profits should not matter to anyone except Google and Apple investors. For everybody else this is great news. For android developers and users it means that there is more incentive for making tablet apps. For Apple and Amazon users it means that there is serious competition which should mean lower prices and continued innovation going forward.

mchristoff 14y ago

Let's not forget all of these N7s come with a $25 Play credit. This is great for Android devs. We've seen a big increase in sales since it went on sale this summer.

theDaveB 14y ago

Got my son a Nexus 7 for his birthday and he loves it, am impressed as well (currently have a iPad 1). One thing I don't get though is how some top games are free on android and cost money on iOS ? Bad Piggies for instance, is 1.99 for iPad and free on Android and I can't see any ads on it or that it's a cut down version. Dave