Atmel sales drag as iPad rivals Samsung, Dell slump
updated 12:20 am EDT, Wed November 2, 2011
Atmel touchscreen chips struggle in Q3
Atmel gave an outlook on Tuesday for the fall that was one of the few cluews as to how well iPad rivals were faring in the market. It expected its touchscreen contoller chip sales to drop 12 to 16 percent, as low as $402.7 million, at a time when shipments were normally up. Some of the company's tablet customers, including Dell and Samsung, had higher than usual inventories that pointed to a lack of sales.
The forecast for the complete year was being bumped up $25 million to $375 million based primarily on smartphones, where Android's rapid rise favored Atmel's strategy. It serves HTC, Nokia, and Samsung, among others.
CEO Steve Laub also pointed to a still-lingering tough economy and to companies consolidating around single chips for touch control, which hurt the amount Atmel could make for every device.
While not always directly connected, they come as the companies themselves have remained silent. Dell has never been known to enjoy especially strong Streak and Streak 7 sales, having dropped the five-inch model. Samsung's lack of commentary might be the most telling, as the company touts most milestones but has been silent about the performance of the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Unlike in phones, where Android has been on the rise for the past three years, Android tablets have lately been on a contraction and saw Motorola ship just 100,000 Xoom tablets, less than half what it did in the roughly five weeks after launch.
Apple in its last quarter alone moved 11.12 million iPads, or several times what its next-best rival managed. [via Reuters]
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industry, gadgets, Dell, htc, Nokia, Android, Motorola, Samsung, Apple, Atmel, Streak, iPad, Galaxy Tab, Xoom
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Joined: Oct 2011
My opinion...
It's funny, I think we'll see a continued trend that will split the 'Android world' and 'iOS world'. Mobile phones have become an essential device for pretty much everyone. From school kids to business people and even Grandpa. iOS has seen dramatic growth in the mobile browser and Apps area...Android seems to be lagging...in a big way. The way I see it is a large majority of Android users are sold it on Price, Availability and purely because they don't care what they use to make a call on. iOS customers are a different market, they like to be connected, love the occasional game and enjoy the security of Apple's ecosystem.
I think this explains the total lack of interest in Android tablets....for now. There is no market for them because their client base is largely out of touch with trends and vision. I feel they will find their place and gather traction but the end user is a completely different beast.
Also...the fact that Android seems to be evolving into a 'fragmented' system as well as becoming increasingly complex will only slow down it's appeal.
...but I think we all need to wonder how long will Android be free for OEM's? With Microsoft making more money on Android than Google, Oracle likely to demand the removal of JAVA and the lack of revenue from mobile ads....one would think that maybe Android will someday incur a licence fee.....or be sold off!