Ruh-roh. All those Samsung Galaxy Tabs actually sold to distributors, not consumers

[Narmer]

Samsung also admits that sales to consumers were "quite small".
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/31/samsung-says-galaxy-tab-sales-to-consumers-actually-quite-small/

Samsung says Galaxy Tab sales to consumers actually 'quite small'

By Donald Melanson posted Jan 31st 2011 12:38PM

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When is a tablet sold not actually a tablet sold? When it's a Galaxy Tab, apparently. As The Wall Street Journal reports, those two million Galaxy Tabs that Samsung reported it had "sold" in the fourth quarter of last year were apparently not actual sales to consumers, but simply sales to distributors (which is a different matter altogether). Even more surprisingly, Samsung's Lee Young-hee further explained on an earnings call on Friday that so-called "sell-out" sales to customers were actually "quite small," but she wouldn't provide a specific number. Somewhat confusingly, however, she also later noted that while "sell-out wasn't as fast as we expected," Samsung still believes that sales to consumers were "quite OK," and that it is "quite optimistic" about 2011.

 

[ponyo]

Good. Hopefully this means discounted Tab soon. $250- 300 should move it unless Nook Color gets a price cut. Tab is at best worth $50 premium over Nook Color.

 

[Deeko]

People get up in arms when companies use this number, and I don't know why. First off, the stores wouldn't be buying them if they didn't think they'd sell them. More importantly, as Microsoft as pointed out in regards to the Kinect and WP7 sales numbers, they just don't have an accurate way to know how many were actually sold to consumers. This, they have concrete numbers.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

lots of companies (like ms with their wp7 phones) do this, they count "sales" as product shipped to retailers. ive never thought that tablets would sell, not the way they are currently marketed, at high prices and with contracts. they will never sell as long as you have to get a contract attached to a particular device. they need lower prices and they need to be able to sell more than one device to techfans just as they do with pc's and that isnt possible if those devices are sold through att, verizon etc...they way things are now most people are going to be satisfied with the {smartphone and laptop/starbucks} option

 

[Bateluer]

lots of companies (like ms with their wp7 phones) do this, they count "sales" as product shipped to retailers. ive never thought that tablets would sell, not the way they are currently marketed, at high prices and with contracts. they will never sell as long as you have to get a contract attached to a particular device. they need lower prices and they need to be able to sell more than one device to techfans just as they do with pc's and that isnt possible if those devices are sold through att, verizon etc...they way things are now most people are going to be satisfied with the {smartphone and laptop/starbucks} option

This. These tablets need to be cheaper, especially since they are essentially netbook-like devices, except with less functionality. Wifi only models should always be 'stock', with an internal slot for cellular data.

 

[kaerflog]

Yeah, I've been wanting to try out a tablet for a while but at the end of the day, what the hell would I be using it for ??
The only thing that would really benefit me is the games that require a bigger screen.(I don't read books).
So I ended up buying a Macbook air 11.6 that this thing is awesome.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

yeah a tablet isnt like a smartphone or a laptop, you dont NEED one. they need to price them to make people want one

 

[Aikouka]

People get up in arms when companies use this number, and I don't know why. First off, the stores wouldn't be buying them if they didn't think they'd sell them. More importantly, as Microsoft as pointed out in regards to the Kinect and WP7 sales numbers, they just don't have an accurate way to know how many were actually sold to consumers. This, they have concrete numbers.

It's just proper terminology. When Samsung sells them to distributors, the number should be "x shipped" not "x sold."

 

[Patranus]

Stuffing the supply chain to make the balance sheet look better.

Hrmmmm..

 

[Pliablemoose]

Samsung is in an interesting position, supplying CPU's and screens to Apple, they have the inside track on making tablets.

Interesting that they're inflating the numbers artificially.

When you fill up the supply chain with unsold merchandise, it ends up having a devastating effect on the sales price.

I have seen up to 5 iPads at a time in my hospital lunch room, I see iPads in our manufacturer's rep's hands every day. I have yet to see a Samsung tablet in use outside of of a Verizon store, and I live in LA, where people love their gadgets and love to show off.

Greed and 2 year contracts are killing tablet sales.

 

[Patranus]

Samsung is in an interesting position, supplying CPU's and screens to Apple, they have the inside track on making tablets.

Interesting that they're inflating the numbers artificially.

When you fill up the supply chain with unsold merchandise, it ends up having a devastating effect on the sales price.

I have seen up to 5 iPads at a time in my hospital lunch room, I see iPads in our manufacturer's rep's hands every day. I have yet to see a Samsung tablet in use outside of of a Verizon store, and I live in LA, where people love their gadgets and love to show off.

Greed and 2 year contracts are killing tablet sales.

Just because they have an inside track on components doesn't mean they know how to design a product or have software that runs well on it.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Manufacturers are missing a major selling point of the iPad, WiFi versions available at launch and selling point #2, a month to month data plan.

Point #3 is a little harder to quantify, but why in the hell would I buy a 7" tablet when I have a 4-5" screened cell phone? Especially if I have to add a 2 year contract with data through a cell phone carrier with tiered data with the potential for getting billed for higher data use if I dare use the thing?

Why do I want a cell data plan for a device that lives on the coffee table or gets used at Starbucks?

The other interesting tidbit released yesterday is a 16% return rate for the Galaxy Tab, versus a 2% return rate for the iPad.

 

[sjwaste]

The iPad is a superior product. Unless you have to have Android, there's no reason to get a Galaxy Tab. iPad is a little bigger, and the 4:3 form factor is very comfortable. You end up with more pixels, too. Battery life is great. Can buy Wifi only, or go month to month on a 3G model. I'm pretty hard on iOS as an inferior OS to Android, but right now, iOS is more suitable for the tablet form factor than Android.

I have a Nook Color too. It has flaws - the screen flickers a little, no capacitive buttons, and no real access to the underlying OS (no market, either). But it's a really good e-reader. And it's $250 - half the price of an iPad without locking me into a contract. If I need connectivity, I can tether to my Evo.

 

[Pliablemoose]

The iPad is a superior product. Unless you have to have Android, there's no reason to get a Galaxy Tab. iPad is a little bigger, and the 4:3 form factor is very comfortable. You end up with more pixels, too. Battery life is great. Can buy Wifi only, or go month to month on a 3G model. I'm pretty hard on iOS as an inferior OS to Android, but right now, iOS is more suitable for the tablet form factor than Android.

I have a Nook Color too. It has flaws - the screen flickers a little, no capacitive buttons, and no real access to the underlying OS (no market, either). But it's a really good e-reader. And it's $250 - half the price of an iPad without locking me into a contract. If I need connectivity, I can tether to my Evo.

LOL, nook color/EVO owners unite!!!!!!!

But yeah, I enjoy the hell out of hacking the nook and EVO, and even as a super geek, am not going to consider a 2 year data plan for a tablet.

Heck, I use the EVO as my primary data source at home now, just plug it in and tether and I'm golden, lag is a bitch, and gaming would be ugly, but it streams Netflix acceptably, I'm a happy camper.

 

[sjwaste]

LOL, nook color/EVO owners unite!!!!!!!

But yeah, I enjoy the hell out of hacking the nook and EVO, and even as a super geek, am not going to consider a 2 year data plan for a tablet.

Heck, I use the EVO as my primary data source at home now, just plug it in and tether and I'm golden, lag is a bitch, and gaming would be ugly, but it streams Netflix acceptably, I'm a happy camper.

Haha, yeah, the Nook Color was definitely a toy. My wife showed up at home with it after a post-Christmas shopping trip, since I'd apparently been talking about wanting an Android tablet to screw with. I use it a lot - surprisingly for its primary purpose, as a reader. It's quite good.

The stupid F'ing 1.1 OTA blew out my root, so I need to start over. I was using Nooter, since I didn't want all of the battery draining goodness that Auto-Nooter installs by default. Have you installed Clockwork Recovery and used it to actually restore a backup? The XDA community is surprisingly thin on whether that actually works, but I'm holding off on Nookie Froyo until that. I use this thing every day for reading, so I don't want downtime (yet).

I kind of stopped screwing with the Evo. At one point, I had screwed up my Wimax, but thankfully not so bad that tricking the phone into downgrading with the stock RUU didn't recover it. Since then, I've just run the latest Fresh ROM and only really updated when he released a new one. Now that Amon Ra Recovery explicitly lets you nandroid the /wimax partition, I might try CM6. Problem is, I really do like Sense.

 

[Pliablemoose]

I don't mess with the EVO that much, am happy with Fresh as well, I was shocked at how slow a stock EVO is when I rooted a friend's last week and put Fresh on it after she decided Cyanogen's rom was too buggy for daily use. I figured Cyanogen's rom was so popular, it might be a good starter rom, but it's got too many bugs and froze up on her frequently...

Am waiting for a good custom rom for the nook as well, it's close, I suspect... Heck, we may get a functional build of Honeycomb soon If they get a good rom and Bluetooth working, I'll be amazed.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=936995

 

[sivart]

yeah a tablet isnt like a smartphone or a laptop, you dont NEED one. they need to price them to make people want one

You don't NEED a smart phone or a laptop either :awe:

 

[sjwaste]

Oh wow, I hadn't logged into XDA for a couple of days. Might need to give that Honeycomb image a spin. My only spare MicroSD card is 2gb, though. An 8gb is cheap, but I'm lazy.

 

[Patranus]

Another interesting stat is the ~20% return rate of the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

 

[kaerflog]

You don't NEED a smart phone or a laptop either :awe:

Yes I do !!!

 

[NikolaeVarius]

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/01/samsung-experiencing-a-16-percent-return-rate-on-the-galaxy-tab/

13 percent normally, 16 percent return rate due to holiday sales.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/01/samsungs-lee-young-hee-was-misunderstood-galaxy-tab-sales-are/

Sales have been "smooth" not small. Though I'm not sure what exactly that means, I take it to means it been selling well and consistently. Though not amazingly well.

 

[Patranus]

Sales have been "smooth" not small. Though I'm not sure what exactly that means, I take it to means it been selling well and consistently. Though not amazingly well.

Thats like the Scion salesman at the car show saying that Scions are "affordable" when I mentioned to my friend they are "cheap".

 

[Deeko]

Another interesting stat is the ~20% return rate of the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Source?

 

[Patranus]

Source?

Its was over on Engadget or Gizmodo

 

[Deeko]

Its was over on Engadget or Gizmodo

I saw 13%-16% on Engadget, which might not be great, but is considerably lower than 20%.