At the beginning of 2010 everyone were excited about a new market space being available -
Tablets. It was very fascinating to do so much on a less than 10-inch screen. And many of them were predicting 2010 to be "The Year of the Tablets" but it was really very disappointing to see only 2 praise worth tablets in the entire year. Without any doubt these 2 tablets are Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab (Come on, Dell streak was a phone without calling capabilities! HP slate was dead even before it arrived).
With the start of 2011 many companies (like Motorola,RIM et al ) were yet to put a tablet on sale. Though many showed the prototypes, which were impressive, none were ready to be shipped. What this means is they are not yet ready to be used. So What happened to this "new" attractive market ? Do you think it went drought? Really? Think again. Apple has done it again! They were clearly the highest (and the only ?) Tablet-selling company.
Not even a year ago Apple released the iPad to everyone awe. Some called it an enlarged iPod but nonetheless it was one hell of a revolutionary product. It sold like cup cakes. When competitor(s) were failing to get tablets off the shelves Apple was minting billions through the iPad sales. Though when it was released everyone thought it was too expensive but even the tablets released(I mean shown) in the 2011 were priced more than iPad. Some like RIM are still to make a announcement regarding the prices for a tablet shown before Christmas.
Now Apple thought it was time for using the turbo boost. And boom we have the next generation of the iPad - iPad 2. Yes when many are struggling to release their tablets, Apple have shown it to the world and are ready to be shipped ,in 2 colors -White and Black. Though iPad 2 isn't game changing like its predecessor but it patches almost all the shortcomings of iPad.
Yes we have one playing Catch-up with Apple - Samsung announced the second iteration of Galaxy Tab ,but it doesn't have a shipping date nor a price quote. Samsung have already announced that their Tablet sales are not satisfactory.
Though everyone called iPad expensive I think many manufacturers have realised that it takes a lot of green paper to make a 9-inch touch screen. Motorola Have also announced Motorola Xoom with a heavy price of $1199. Though Xoom is tough on paper with all it's solid specifications ,it is going to take some time before it is sold in the stores. Moreover it is being sued for trademark violation. But, if there is a product which is capable of pulling customers away from the iPad it has to be Moto Xoom. With Xoom also running Android 3, it will be very exciting to see it pitted against iPad 2 in the stores.
So we ask the question again which was asked about a year ago - Who is going to win the Tablet-Race this year? Wait what ? Isn't it already won by the super-good iPad ?
Inputs are much appreciated.
