In the recent years only three products in the iterations, Apple has created and still dominates the touch screen tablet market. There have been touch screen devices before, including Apple’s Newton from 1987 and even a tablet PC form factor launched by Microsoft in the early 2000s, yet Apple’s iPad is still generally seen as the tablet device to aspire to.
It’s a premium product at a premium price, yet Apple’s high volumes enable it to make a profit while keeping the bill of materials costs down. Simply undercutting the price with a less sophisticated device has not been a winning strategy as yet.
It’s not that competitors haven’t been trying and some have been doing well, but there have already been some challengers fading as those not completely accustomed to the faster and fickle pace of retail products and the speed of consumerisation of the enterprise hit obstacles.
HP, Dell, Cisco and RIM/BlackBerry have all stumbled with their tablet offerings and, while Avaya has persisted with its more specialised tablet to support its ‘Flare’ experience, this is not the high volume end of the market to dent Apple’s market share.
However, Google found a number of OEM takers for its Android software platform. Asus, Acer, Motorola, Sony and Archos have all produced acceptable tablet devices, but none quite matching the slickness of the iPad or taking much from its market share, despite generally being cheaper.
Of the traditional mobile manufacturers only Samsung has successfully taken the fight to Apple with its impressive Galaxy Tabs. That was until Amazon released its Kindle range with the Fire, stepping up from supplying e-readers to fully functioning tablets. Barnes and Noble have also taken similar steps with its Nook ranges of e-readers and tablets.
While Android is a common factor in all the above, it’s not always sufficiently common to ensure compatibility, and in cases like Kindle and the Nook, compatibility is not a driving factor—the sale of media content is. These devices are deliberately low cost to support the ‘razor and blades’ model of loss-leading initial acquisition, with repeat on-going purchases delivering the longer-term margins. Recent report says that Microsoft may sell its Surface Windows RT tablet for just $199 with subsidy !?
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