Technology

The Tablet War Begins (or Ends) Now

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Italian pro blogger and internet producer. Follow Antonio on Twitter or take a look at his Facebook Profile.
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The year 2011 has been defined by industry analysts as the year of tablet market consolidation. Despite the arrival of exciting new products like the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Motoroloa Xoom, the Apple iPad, which the new version will be presented in a few days in San Francisco, firmly will continue to dominate the sales charts.

According to a recent Gartner study, around 55 million tablets will be sold over the year. In this scenario, the iPad will continue to maintain its advantage over other similar devices on the market.

This prediction is very realistic. It appears that the major competitors of the giant of Cupertino have not yet understood that it is impossible to obtain a significant competitive advantage only through the introduction of new hardware.

The dominance of the market will be increasingly determined by the existence of an ecosystem of hardware, software, developers, users, which will be the discriminating factor for the success of one product over another.

And it is precisely for this reason that, iPad aside, the real strength of Apple is the huge universe of applications available in the App Store that makes the iPad much more attractive than other alternatives and is the biggest barriers to entry to all other Apple’s competitors.

COMMENTS

  • Reply
    February 27, 2011 at 11:27 am
    Michael

    I think it’s worth noting that competitors are really struggling to match Apple’s price point. Historically Apple has always been known for being very expensive but with the iPad it seems to have changed. The original Galaxy Tab with a 2 year data contract cost what an entry level contract free iPad cost. While the new Motorolla tablet seems to be way too expensive at over 800 dollars.

    If able maintains this price advantage while throwing in some surprise new features they can easily maintain their lead this year. Regardless of how well their competition manages to strengthen their supporting software ecosystem.

  • Reply
    February 27, 2011 at 12:19 pm
    DUFFBERT

    JH: Mobile, especially tablets, are dominating the news. Mobile Web Congress (MWC) was full of Android and tablets. By the end of 2011, there could be almost 40 tablets shipping. Amazing since this time last year, the iPad was just announced.

    http://www.johndavidhead.com/jhead/johnhead.nsf/dx/interview-with-ibms-doug-heintzman-and-konrad-lagarde-ibm-project-vulcan-ibm-social-business-toolkit-mobile-and-odfopenoffice.org-interview-

  • Reply
    February 27, 2011 at 4:10 pm
    Oleg

    You could make the same point about iPhone & Android. As the last year showed – this isn’t the case. Android began to seriously eat Apple’s lunch and this year it’ll be even on a much wider scale.

    • February 27, 2011 at 4:22 pm
      Antonio Lupetti

      Yes it’s true, but I think the mobile market is a little bit different.

    • February 27, 2011 at 5:07 pm
      PXLated

      Tablet market and it’s distribution is totally different than the Cell market with subsidies. Only HP really has distribution outside the carriers.
      The number of tablets “shown” (or even announced) has no relevance. RIM has announced three and shipped none this last year. Need shipping units with distribution and at the right price. And, android R&D dollars are being spent chasing iPad-1 while Apple is spending it’s R&D on iPad-2, iPad-3, etc. Very hard to catch up, say nothing of taking the lead, when you’re that far behind and also don’t have an ecosystem to go with the hardware.

    • February 27, 2011 at 5:16 pm
      Antonio Lupetti

      I agree with you.

    • February 28, 2011 at 9:57 am
      Michael

      You guys just don’t get it. Android is eating Apple’s lunch? Apple is pulling almost 50% of the profits of the entire mobile industry. How is Android eating their lunch? Apple is outselling and outprofiting all th companies making Android headsets. The only way Android looks good is by looking at generic marketshare numbers for Android as an operating system. Considering the fragmentation problems of the Andriod platform and low profitability of their headsets I think Apple’s position is very strong for sometime to come.

    • February 28, 2011 at 11:22 am
      EVula

      Michael: 100% agreement. Android’s market share is greater than iOS’s market share in the cell phone market, but where’s the profit? Apple is making an absolute killing with its operating system and hardware. Google is making money, but not a comparable amount; besides, their goal is in the long-term (a broader base equals more eyeballs to sell advertising for; that’s their ONLY goal, and why they give the OS away for free). The various phone manufacturers? Yeah, show me anyone that’s coming close to Apple’s profits. They’re in a race to the bottom, trying to make money on volume.

      In the mobile market, the carriers have been Android’s greatest ally. Those allies are missing in the tablet market. Android’s market share in mobile phones will not directly translate to a market share in the tablet market.

  • Reply
    February 28, 2011 at 1:35 pm
    Francesco

    I think it’s worth knowing for this subject of RIM ‘treats’ his developers… Read this article, shocking => http://blog.jamiemurai.com/2011/02/you-win-rim/