How many Tablet PCs have been sold so far?
According to Bill Gates in his Office 2003 speech :
Tablet PCs have “…been out almost a year now, and there’s a little over 400,000 of those in use.”
And according to IDC as reported in today’s Taipei Times:
“Until the end of June, only 255,189 units had been sold globally…That represents less than 2 percent of all portable computers sold.”
Hmm. At first glance it sounds like someone’s numbers are off. Actually, it may just be that Bill Gates is using more recent numbers. After all, we’re almost four months past the end of June. If you figure 30,000 Tablet PCs are being shipped a month (actually 250,000 over the first seven months yields a 40,000+ monthly average so using 30,000 isn’t probably that bad of a number), that would add another 120,000 units beyond IDC’s June figure of 255,189. This would give an approximate number of units today of 375,000. That’s pretty close to Gates’ number.
I know to many industry pundits, 400,000 units in one year doesn’t sound like much, but it’s quite respectable for the first year for an ordinary startup.
Hmm. I wonder when the market is going to hit the 1,000,000 unit milestone. June 2004? November 2004? January 2005? What do you think?
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