Tablet Wars
December 4th, 2010, 10:55am by JakeApple sold 3 million iPads in 80 days, and who know how many more since then. Seriously… who knows how many they sold since then? I know it’s at least two, and soon to be 3.5. Samsung has sold-in or sold-through a million Galaxy Tabs in just a couple months. The Nook Color, once hacked, looks like the best low-priced tablet yet. And HP is prepared to sell 7 million PalmPads in 2011. What does the future hold for the tablet market… winners, losers. Of course, we’ve covered this ground before, but there’s always something new.
December 4th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Apple has reported 2 quarters of iPad sales data in their earnings– off the top of my head, I think the cumulative total is about 8 million (and analysts project another 5 million in the CY 4th quarter). I think HP Is delusional if they think they can sell half Apple’s 2010 total from a standing start. It has the same chance as RIMM’s Playbook, without the BB integration. How big is this market getting anyway? Half the laptop market will be 40 million or so in 2011. Apple’s sales numbers (and therefore the total tablet market) doesn’t seem like they’re growing fast enough to justify a projection like that. Between Tab and iPad, the Q4 tablet market looks to be close to 7 million, annualizing to about 30 million. Maybe that number balloons with credible competitors, who knows, but color me skeptical. People will have to start getting tablets instead of laptops for that to happen. We’re probably in the market for 2 laptops in 2011, and I can’t see a tablet being a serious alternative (well, I’ll get a “tablet” built-in, I’m fairly certain).
As for webOS on a tablet, they need to figure out a way to do the back gesture from the screen. Moving you hand to the bezel just seems so inefficient.
December 6th, 2010 at 7:48 pm
I will report that I saw a lot of Tabs in HK, every store had one front and center it seems like. Haven’t seen one yet in the US, but it does seem like they are most certainly NOT “dead on arrival.” We webOS supporters aren’t the only ones with a cloudy crystal ball…