By Michael Hickins
Hewlett-Packard announced its entry into the mobile device space today, but is entering a market already crowded with strong contenders. The market, currently dominated by Apple’s iPad (which hogged approximately 87 percent of the worldwide market in 2010, according to research firm IDC), already includes Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, and will count the likes of Motorola Mobility Holdings, Research in Motion and Dell, all of whom intend to ship by the end of this year.
But it’s that very timing that gives Apple such a huge advantage, according to Susan Kevorkian, who follows the mobile device market for IDC. Apple plans to ship its second generation of the iPad by the end of the first quarter or early second quarter, while its would-be rivals “won’t be shipping until later this year,” Ms Kevorkian told Digits.
- KIMIHIRO HOSHINO/AFP/Getty Images)
- Jon Rubinstein, senior vice president and general manager of HP Palm, introduces the TouchPad on February 9, 2011.
That includes the Touchpad, HP’s new device, which isn’t slated to roll out until this summer.
Apple’s rivals aren’t making things any easier on themselves with their pricing strategy either, Ms. Kevorkian noted. For instance, Motorola has priced its Xoom at $799, which is comparable to the iPad’s higher-end pricing, and Samsung’s Tab is priced in line with the lower-end iPad.
Only Research in Motion seems to have a winning strategy, said Ms. Kevorkian, reaching out to current business customers of its BlackBerry smartphones. The sales pitch is that the IT departments of those businesses won’t have to buy new technology to make the forthcoming Playbook tablet work with their systems. “It’s a smart strategy out of the gate, given that Apple is less established in terms of its enterprise sales channels,” Ms. Kevorkian said.
According to IDC, Apple’s share of worldwide tablet shipments will fall from its current lofty perch, but will remain at over 50 percent. And that market is growing by leaps and bounds, rising from 17 million tablets shipped in 2010 to an estimated 44.5 million in 2011.
Here’s a summary of what we know so far about the tablet ecosystem:
- * IDC counts the number of active developers who have participated in the development of an app.
Are you planning to wait for the Playbook or another non-Apple tablet, or are you going to buy the iPad?
Apple may sue HP as they are copying so much of their technology. Wiki leaks has published
hidden corporate documents confirming this: http://fms.nu/eC7P4y
I really prefer the iPad over anything else though, you just can’t keep up with Apple.
Everyone else is just trying to catch up!
The primary reason apple doesn’t use flash is because of it’s inefficient power consumption - they want the batteries of their mobile devices to last a long time. Secondarily, flash is a buggy resource-hog that is unstable (prone to crashing) and yesteryear’s technology. HTML5 adoption rate is well-documented and it will be the standard in the near-term future, imo. Also, you won’t need adobe tools to implement HTML5 video on your webpage.
Regarding iPad competitors, excuse me while I laugh. Everything brought to market so far doesn’t hold a candle to the ipad, imo… and the iPad continues to build on it’s dominant tablet marketshare lead (and even encroaching on many other manufacterers’ PC sales).
I wouldn’t want to be a competitor of Apple right now.
iwant Xoom too.
7″ inch tablets are so light and incredibly portable, tho. HTC?
Correction: Motorola hasn’t yet announced XOOM’s price. There are rumors about prices but nothing is confirmed so far.
@george, please open your eyes and look at the big picture:
1. Google takes the same 30% cut on apps, just refer to their official site http://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=112622
2. You don’t like closed system and limited choice, what do u think about Flash which is not an open standard either? That’s really dangerous too if the whole web is based on proprietary Flash, which could be buggy, inefficient (on resources) and unsecured. Also, Adobe controls the pace of the release and may slow down web innovation, e.g. just look at how long it takes for them to have working flash plug-in on smart-phones.
3. Google promises Android to be a common/open platform, in reality, they control the platform and don’t release all the source code. Google control the release schedule, feature sets and bug fixes, normally manufacturers can’t directly contribute or get informed about the development except the “chosen one” for each major release, e.g. HTC for Nexus One, Samsung for Nexus S, Motorola for Xoom. That’s why new devices outside of the “chosen one” usually come with an older Android version, e.g. 2.2 on Atrix 4G rather than 2.3. Manufacturers could only innovate via hardware and customed UI like HTC Sense to differentiate themselves in the crowded Android market, ironically, these customizations further delay/hinder the release of new Android version for their devices and further fragment the Android space. Since bugs are normally only fixed in the latest version, if users can’t update in time, they are affected by the bugs for an extended period of time, e.g. SMS bug on Android that would send text to the wrong person. In contrast, all recent iPhone users (up to 2-year-old or so) can update to latest iOS version at any time.