The already underperforming Android tablet market in the US was downplayed this week by a Dell executive and his comments are on the same line as the quotes by the CEO of Nvidia about the launch of the Motorola Xoom. Even as Apple has reportedly sold over 25 million iPad units till date, many of those in the US, only a small fraction of those sales figures has been achieved by the Android tablet makers such as Samsung and Motorola.
Only some 250,000 Xoom tablets have been sold by Motorola, while Samsung has done a bit better with the sales of just fewer than 1 million Galaxy Tabs in the first quarter, according to the stats provided by DisplaySearch. The relatively robust numbers of Samsung includes a large number of overseas sales and still pales in comparison to the stats of Apple, which sold the same number of iPad 2s in just their first weekend sales in the US.
Dell Vice President and the Manager of the mobility business of the company, John Thode, said in an interview this week that the market in the US isn’t even ready for a successful launch of an Android tablet. The first 10 inch tablet made by Dell, the Streak 10 Pro, is expected to launch in China sometime in the summer.
According to Thode, a US launch will not take place until the end of this year or even next year. About the US tablet market, he said that there generally remains a bit of haze over some of the early launches. He claims that he doesn’t want to criticize the competition unnecessarily; however he did say that the Motorola Xoom faced a mixed response as the tablet launched before its time and because the pricing and the channels were confused.
These statements are very similar to those given by the Nvidia CEO about the launch of the Xoom last month. Thode continued, saying that the view of Dell is rather than trying to get above the noise of the market, or even adding to that noise, it is better to try and get some grip on a market which will eventually become a larger market. He concluded saying that China is expected to be the largest tablet market in the world in a very short time. He believes that the consumers in the US aren’t ready yet, whereas the Chinese consumers are much savvier about adopting the tablets.
