The success of the Apple iPad has been phenomenal with sales dominating all competing tablets running on Android. Some analysts estimate that the sales figures of the iPad are so strong that they have even surpassed the sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab in the home country of the electronics giant. Apple first released the iPad in South Korea in November 2010 and the company has managed to sell more than a million tablets since. The Korea Herald reported that this figure is far more than what has been achieved by Samsung’s Galaxy Tab.
The first quarter of 2011 saw the release of the iPad 2 which is majorly responsible for the increased sales figures. As many as 700,000 tablets were sold since the release of the iPad 2 alone though some industry insiders state that actual figures could be higher than this as many customers managed to get their hands on the iPad 2 through unmonitored channels even before the April 29 official release. Though Samsung usually does not release any official sales figures, market analysts estimate that iPad has a strong command over the local market with around 70 to 80 percent market share in the region. However, the sales figures also indicate that most customers are unwilling to pay monthly fees for 3G data speeds, with as many as two of every three iPad that are sold in Korea being WiFi models. However, some analysts say that customers are holding back till a tablet is released which will enable them to take full advantage of the country’s 4G network with most of the major carriers in the country offering either WiMAX or LTE.
In the period from December 2010 to December 2011, the iPad saw an increase in sales of about 111 percent with the total revenue of the company going up by 99 percent. South Korea accounts for only a fraction of the total global sales. However this is not for the first time that Apple has managed to outsell a competitor in their own home country. Last November, with the release of the iPhone 4S Apple managed to secure over 200,000 preorders beating the three day sales total of the Galaxy S II which totaled to about 120,000 units.
Apple’s fortunes may swing even higher in the coming months with the release of the iPad 3, which is expected to feature the most advanced hardware seen yet on a tablet. Samsung, on the other hand, seems to have no such outstanding impending release to its name, and has just released an incremental (and disappointing) update in the form of the Galaxy Tab 2.
