Tablet Wars

There's been a lot of press about Tablets lately. Until recently, Apple's iPad was the only game in town. But Samsung released the Galaxy Tab, Motorola released their Xoom, and Research in Motion recently released their Playbook. Apple just released the second generation of the iPad, which dealt directly with some of the initial criticisms of the platform, as well as making it smaller and faster.

Early on, the industry analysts were wondering how large the potential market was. Apple sold almost 1 Million iPads in the first month it was on the market. In all, Apple has sold more that 15 Million iPads, and are on track to sell 8 Million iPad2's.

Early sales of the Motorola Xoom are disappointing, by comparison. In their first quarter, analysts estimate that there have been 250,000 units shipped. This leads us to the question - is this a "Tablet Market" or an "iPad Market"? Recent reports show that the Apple products (first & second generation devices combined) control 82% of the market.

Interestingly, Microsoft is being left behind, and is none too happy about it.



Two years ago, Steve Ballmer showed off an HP Slate, running the Windows 7 operating system. Criticism was harsh ! The concern was that a Windows platform takes far too long to boot up & shut down, and is not "finger friendly". Further, HP has acquired the Palm Web-OS. And the Slate will continue it's development on that platform. Sorry Steve...

RIM's Playbook showed great promise, and the hope was that it would provide a MORE business-friendly tablet interface. But the critics panned it as well, calling it "rushed and incomplete". Worse, the reliance on "bridge" software to allow the device access to the email, contacts & calendar information is not allowed for use on AT&T's network ! And you can't use them without it !

The Xoom is exciting in that it is the first iteration of the Android v.3 (AKA Honeycomb) operating system. But the fact that it is (sort of, OK not really) based on Open Source Software is simply not enough.

The big buzz in the tablet world is the fact that the iPad doesn't support Flash - a technology for building games & applications to be delivered in a web-browser. But even on the tablets which DO support Flash, it's performance is lackluster and prone to crashing.

The message IS clear - it's an iPad market, not a tablet market. Apple has successfully created a market, one which it continues to dominate.


The opinions expressed in this post are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses; everyone has one and they are entitled to it !