Apple's U.S. iPad sales equivalent to 1 in 9 of population

IDG News Service - Just how much does Apple dominate competitors in the U.S. tablet market? The question has always been one left to estimates by analysts, but documents recently filed as part of the court battle between the company and Samsung provide actual sales numbers for the two companies, and offer a startling look at how strong Apple's sales are in its home market versus the South Korean competitor.

Since launch, the iPad has sold 34 million units in the U.S. -- that's roughly one for every nine people in the country -- and brought in US$19 billion in revenue for Apple. The Galaxy Tab has managed sales of 1.4 million units, worth $644 million.

The data was submitted to the court in San Jose where both companies are battling over patents.

It covers quarterly U.S. market sales for all models of the iPad combined and Galaxy Tab sales broken down between the three models: the Tab, Tab 10.1 and Tab 10.1 LTE. The Apple data begins with the second calendar quarter of 2010 while the Samsung data begins in the fourth quarter of the same year. Both data sets run until the second quarter of this year, which ended in June.

Looking at the sales data, the Galaxy Tab enjoyed its best U.S. sales in the last three months of 2011 when Samsung sold 347,000 units of the three models of the device, comprised of 102,000 Tab, 213,000 Tab 10.1, and 32,000 Tab 10.1 LTE.

Sales were worst in the most recently ended quarter, at just 37,000 units although it's unclear if the second quarter sales data is for the complete three-month period.

In contrast, Apple sold more iPads in any single three-month period than the Galaxy Tab sold over its lifetime.

The weakest quarter for the iPad was the first quarter of last year when sales hit 1.9 million units. Strongest sales came in the last three months of last year, right before the end-of-year sales period and after Apple launched new models of the iPad. Sales during the period were just under 6 million units.

The case, 11-01846 Apple vs Samsung in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, is currently in the jury trial stage. It continues Friday and is expected to last through August.

Martyn Williams covers mobile telecoms, Silicon Valley and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address is martyn_williams@idg.com