Apple's iPad to have 'free run' in holiday shopping season
Summary: Gartner says that until Android can get its hardware, software and services act together, the tablet market belongs to Apple's iPad.
Apple's iPad is likely to be unchallenged in the tablet market this holiday shopping season, according to Gartner projections.
The research firm projected that global tablet sales will hit 63.6 million units in 2011, up from 17.6 million in 2010.
Media tablets will hit 326.3 million units in 2015.
For now, Gartner estimates that Apple's iPad will account for 73.4 percent of global tablet sales, down from 83 percent in 2010. However, the number of units has grown substantially. Android will be No. 2 in market share with 17.3 percent of the market (11 million units) and other platforms are lagging with less than 5 percent share.
Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi said that Apple's integration between hardware, software and services make it tough to beat. She said:
Unless competitors can respond with a similar approach, challenges to Apple’s position will be minimal.
Milanesi blasted Android tablets for high prices, a weak user interface and a lack of tablet apps. She added that Android's Ice Cream Sandwich release may fix things, but it's unclear. Like IDC, Gartner seems to be betting that the Android camp is vulnerable.
As for the rest of the field, Gartner said RIM's QNX platform is promising, but it's too early to tell whether it’ll do well. Microsoft's Windows 8 success as a tablet will depend on compromises the company makes to be cross platform.
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Talkback
RE: Apple's iPad to have 'free run' in holiday shopping season
RE: Apple's iPad to have 'free run' in holiday shopping season
Windows 8 may be awesome when it's finally released for production in a year or two, or it may be so far behind the ever developing and evolving tablet market that no one will care. I'm much more bullish on Android than I am on Windows 8. At least Android tablets are shipping now. Where's Windows 8? Buggy developer previews are a poor substitute for something I can walk down to Best Buy and purchase right now.
RE: Apple's iPad to have 'free run' in holiday shopping season
Android tablets run mostly fart apps now. When Android is capable of running heavy lifting apps, corporate class apps, then they are in level playing fields with MS. The current class of android tablets are useless.
RE: Apple's iPad to have 'free run' in holiday shopping season
Oh and do yourself a favor, everytime you speak in ignorance (which is pretty much every post for you) you make yourself look worse so, think before you type huh!
agreed
RE: Apple's iPad to have 'free run' in holiday shopping season
Remember that WinMo phones have been shipping for ten years only to get trounced by Android (same goes for Symbian). The tables can turn very quickly.
My prediction is for Apple to control the lions share of consumers against Android and Apple to compete agressivley with Windows 8 in the business market.
For consumers its all about the Apps and Android Apps simply are either non-existence or suck. MS will push Office on their tablets hoping to leverage Office for business buyers.
RE: Apple's iPad to have 'free run' in holiday shopping season
RE: Apple's iPad to have 'free run' in holiday shopping season
RE: Apple's iPad to have 'free run' in holiday shopping season
I agree. Whether you are a fan of WP7, Win 8 or Android, you can thank Apple for that.
You have absolutely no way of backing up that statement
"without Apple we wouldn't even be talking windows 8 on a tablet... "
Microsoft has been releasing Windows in tablet form for 10 years starting with XP. Then they released Vista tablets. Then they released Windows 7 tablets. All of this before the iPad. In fact, if MS didn't release Windows 8 on the tablet, that would have been news indeed.
If anything, you can thank MS for the iPad because Apple took one look at Windows on the tablet and realized that things could be done so much better. Apple rarely comes up with their own ideas. All their successful products were improvements on existing products and ideas. Apple lacks a lot of vision but they do remarkably well when it comes to polishing the visions of others.
RE: Apple's iPad to have 'free run' in holiday shopping season
<i>"Microsoft has been releasing Windows in tablet form for 10 years starting with XP. "</i>
Yes, exactly. That's the point. Nobody was talking about the crap MS was trying to push in the tablet space. Stylus? Full Windows? The point here is that the only reason anyone is talking about a Windows 8 tablet is because MS is "following" Apple's lead with touch interface, etc. Metro, like iOS is an interface designed for the hardware device. This is a basic concept that Microsoft didn't get until someone else showed them how to do it. Also, if you're going to cite past events, then it's fair to note that Apple's Newton predates all of Microsoft's efforts in this area.
<i>" Apple rarely comes up with their own ideas. All their successful products were improvements on existing products and ideas. Apple lacks a lot of vision but they do remarkably well when it comes to polishing the visions of others.</i>
LOL!.. I get that you don't like Apple. That's fine. There are many negative things that can be said about the company. However, lack of innovation and vision are not among that list. Suggesting that's the case only makes you look ignorant.
techconc: You are allowed to be wrong
You are factually incorrect here. Nothing has changed between the Windows 8 tablet talks and any talk about previous Windows tablets. There has always been a certain level of "chat" about previous iterations of Windows tablet PCs and there is that same level of "chat" about Windows 8 tablets. MS is not going down the iPad route so no, Windows 8 is not "thanks" to Apple. Windows 8 tablets are another iteration over Windows 7 tablets over Vista tablets and over XP tablets. You wouldn't say that Lion was thanks to Windows 7 because Lion was going to come out regardless of whether MS released Windows 7. Likewise with Windows 8 tablets.
"However, lack of innovation and vision are not among that list."
Apple does not lack innovation, I never wrote that. They do lack vision and that's okay. They are still the most successful company in the world. Innovating on the ideas of others is obviously extremely profitable.
RE: Apple's iPad to have 'free run' in holiday shopping season
Edit: Also if you think nothing has changed in Microsoft's attitude between Win 7 and Win 8 when it comes to tablets then I guess we can expect Win 8 to be an equally large flop in the tablet market.
RE: Apple's iPad to have 'free run' in holiday shopping season
You could argue that xerox laid out the vision for all computers (in all forms) with a GUI that have existed and ever will exist in the future because they had the first GUI, but I would have to disagree.
Pre Win 8, MS had thought tablets as a mostly content creation device just like desktops, while with the iPad Apple focused on content consumption. To me at least, these are 2 very different visions.
RE: Apple's iPad to have 'free run' in holiday shopping season
You are so far off the mark that that is all I can say.
RE: Apple's iPad to have 'free run' in holiday shopping season
Not even two years later, MS is rushing around trying to compete with a fad! And yes I can say this since I'm a Windows fan, that also owns an Ipad, that I'm extremely happy with....
RE: Apple's iPad to have 'free run' in holiday shopping season
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30-45 minutes workouts 2-3 times a week should do the trick
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Lol. Sometimes SPAM is funny. :D How're your six packs coming along? [nt]
RE: Apple's iPad to have 'free run' in holiday shopping season
RE: Apple's iPad to have 'free run' in holiday shopping season