There is No Tablet Market

There is an growing notion that it is impossible to compete with the Apple iPad. The tablet market isn’t a tablet market. It’s an iPad market and it is largely limited to Apple. Does that mean that PC makers have to surrender?

A couple weeks ago, a casual chat I had with a high-ranking executive from a large Silicon Valley hardware firm took an interesting direction. When I questioned the current strategy of Android tablet makers and pointed to lackluster sales, I was told that "of course, Android can’t compete with the iPad." Of course? It sounded like I was the last one to find out what everyone else in Silicon Valley already knows. There is no market for a general tablet. Not surprisingly, that executive asked not to be quoted since it is never a good idea to question a trend that is reshaping an entire industry and has an effect on billions of dollars of investments.

In the following weeks, I chatted with more people at companies that are heavily involved in tablet development. It was quite stunning that there seems to be virtually no hope left that anyone will be able to ever reach the sales numbers Apple has with its iPad. Quotes to prove this claim? Impossible to get - no one likes to get fired. But there is more credibility to such a statement and the prediction that the iPad is likely to remain the only successful tablet for several years, even if analysts are predicting that more than 50 million tablets will be sold annually by 2015. (Source)

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Posted: May 26th, 2011
at 10:00pm by mnp


Categories: computers,apple

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