subject: The Apple iPad Will Dominate The Tablet Market forever? [print this page] The Apple iPad Will Dominate The Tablet Market forever?
Apple's stranglehold on the media tablet market with the iPad could match its previous dominance of the touchscreen smartphone space with the iPhone, according to analysts.
Apple, of course, has an enviable track record of leaping out of the gate with consumer devices ahead of its competitors. The first-generation iPhone was released in June 2007 and Apple watched as the media hoopla surrounding such would-be iPhone-killers as the Blackberry Storm and Palm Pre came and wentultimately, it wasn't until the release of the Motorola Droid in Oct. 2009 that Apple's iPhone faced a truly competitive capacitive touchscreen smartphone.
Some believes Apple could have an even lengthier edge over competitors in the tablet market..
According to the respone from consumers and enterprises to the iPad, many vendors are trying to compete by first delivering hardware and then trying to leverage the platform ecosystem. Many, however, are making the same mistake that was made in the first response wave to the iPhone, as they are prioritizing hardware features over applications, services and overall user experience. Tablets will be much more dependent on the latter than smartphones have been, and the sooner vendors realize that, the better chance they have to compete head-to-head with Apple.
What's more, Apple is the only company to offer one-stop shopping and a system that totally and completely works. All other tablet suppliers have partners to provide stores, content, network, etc. As long as they make it easy, cool and affordable they will hold the lead. The only potential challenger on the horizon is HP, but it will take HP at least two years to get everything pulled together under one roof. What many people fail to appreciate is that Apple doesn't sell a tabletApple sells a top-to-bottom easy to use system. All the other pretenders to the throne sell a componentthe tablet.
Of course, Apple could still be the leading OS among many going into 2014. At the moment, Android Tablet certainly looks like the most likely competitor. But that depends on how you look at WebOS. HP has indicated that it will move WebOS across all its categories.
The Apple iPad Will Dominate The Tablet PC Market forever?
