With HP calling it quits and announcing to leave the tablet market, other competitors stand their ground and are not ready to give up in proving being a threat with their innovations
Apple’s rivals work so hard to give the iPad maker a run for its money in the market. But one way or another they always end up looking after their own sales in the market rather than worry about how much Apple’s sales have been affected with the launch of their product. With HP closing down on its tablet manufacturing business, it is one down for Apple in its list of competitors. As HP exits the picture, who else is left to give Apple a hard time? Let’s check out the remainder of rivals in the list of competitors that might be capable of giving a respectable competition to Apple.
We know that HP TouchPad fell in competition to Apple’s iPad after just seven weeks of surviving in the market, due to weak sales – similar to Dell Streak 5. Moving on to other tablet manufacturers, the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, RIM’s BlackBerry Playbook and Motorola Xoom have also failed to attract consumer attention and are likely suffering from low sales and disappointing reviews. Even when coming to the software designs, Apple’s competitors lack in giving the users an OS experience on their tablets like iOS. Strategy Analytics report shows that the market share held by Android amounted to 30.1% for Google, 4.6% for Microsoft and 3.3% for RIM. In comparison, Apple’s iOS software gathered a market share of 61.3% in the second quarter, which is far above the others.
If there is one company expected to give Apple a tough time then it would hands down be its long time enemy Google. The online search giant has recently struck upon a deal to acquire Motorola Mobility which is going to be extremely beneficial in terms of exhibiting its software. And this purchase might give Apple a reason to be cautious and keep Google’s moves in check. After Google, the responsibility of presenting a challenge to Apple probably comes down to Microsoft as it prepares to emerge with its Windows 8 software by 2012, which Apple should keep an eye on just in case. The software has been informed to power tablets, laptops and traditional PCs as well. Also Microsoft holds the largest computing ecosystem for which it is said to gain considerable traction in the tablet arena. For just this, Microsoft qualifies to be a threatening rival against Apple in the marketplace.
Next in line is Amazon.com, which is getting set for its launch of a new tablet this fall after the success of its Kindle e-reader. The upcoming Amazon tablet will run on Android Honeycomb OS, which will sport a 7 inch screen and hitting the market at a cost of $300, is noted to be a ‘game changer’. Sales of Amazon’s tablet have been predicted to go up to 3 million in the first year, leaving Motorola, Acer and Samsung Galaxy tablets far behind in the competition. Consumers would expect something as good as Kindle by Amazon and would want a taste of another offering by the company. And if Amazon decides to subsidize the price of its tablet then this is clearly giving Apple reason to worry as the competition builds for its iPad. An NPD analyst even stated, “Amazon is widely viewed as a wild card. It has the potential to be disruptive.”
Lastly, we have Sony Corp. as a worthy competitor for Apple, about to make its entry in the tablet PC market with the upcoming launch of two tablet devices. The spokeswoman for Sony Corp. commented, “We’re going to see many competitors come and go. We’re going to bring the best of all of the assets at our disposal to bear: hardware, content and network services.”
So HP might have backed out from the competition but the other rivals are quite ready for their shot against Apple with their latest products in hand. They are willing to attempt overthrowing the stability maintained by Apple in the tablet market with its iPad. Let’s see who survives the pressure, who decides to quit and who finally succeeds in its challenge against Apple.
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