Gartner: Apple rivals can't touch iPad
Forecast for Android slashed by 28 per cent
Pretenders to Apple's fondleslab crown will not overcome the domination of the iPad any time soon if the beancounters at Gartner are to be believed.
In one of their less challenging predictions, the analysts said that rivals remain so far behind Apple and its shiny slates that the US giant will have a "free run" of the market during the festive season.
“We expect Apple to maintain a market share lead throughout our forecast period by commanding more than 50 per cent of the market until 2014,” said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner.
This, she reasons, is because Apple has built better tablet hardware, software and content. And unless competitors can ape this model, "challenges to Apple's position will be minimal".
Gartner is predicting iPad shipments will represent 73.4 per cent of worldwide sales this year, down from 83 per cent last year. In terms of OS market share, it is estimated that Apple iOS and Android will hold around 95 per cent.
Around 11 million devices based on Google's OS are expected to ship in 2011, more than 17 per cent of the total market and up from 14.3 per cent a year ago.
Garner has slashed its forecast for Android by 28 per cent from last quarter's projection and the reduction would have been more severe were it not for rising shipments of low-end tablets in Asia and the forthcoming Amazon slate.
“So far, Android’s appeal in the tablet market has been constrained by high prices, weak user interface and limited tablet applications,” Milanesi said.
“Google will address the fragmentation of Android across smartphone and tablet form factors within the next Android release, known as ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’, which we expect to see in the fourth quarter of 2011," she added. ®
COMMENTS
Oh dear
“So far, Android’s appeal in the tablet market has been constrained by high prices, weak user interface and limited tablet applications,” Milanesi said.
I must have been mistaken in my belief that my ASUS EEE Pad Transformer was comparatively low priced, with an excellent user interface, loads of expansion potential and a perfectly acceptable number of very useful and entertaining applications that do everything I want.
I'd better throw it away immediately and buy a iFad so I can have an expensive device, limited multitasking, no expansion, no keyboard and access to a massive number of applications, of which 5% are any good and which are available just the same on Android.
Well
Maybe flexibility in an OS isn't a benefit. I mean, hell, we could all be running KDE and set it all up however we want, but, as it turns out, most people want simpler, at least in their tablets.
And, by the way, the sales numbers don't lie, Android tablets right now are just not selling.
@AC
Sure, let's. And how about after "Ice Cream Sandwich" we wait until the next Android version, you know, The One that's going to kill iOS. Or is it the one after that?
-dZ.
...plus
The bitter legal battle resulting in possibly the best Android hardware not available to purchase.
As HP proved...
What matters is apps, until you have an equivalent selection and quality of apps as Apple do, you won't be able to compete with them head on... Your product will always be seen as inferior, and people won't be willing to spend the same on it as they would on an Apple device.
Instead, you have to offer your tablets cheaply and compete from below. Slash your margins, or even put out a loss leader ala HP... Had HP not dropped the touchpad, and simply offered it at the price they did anyway they would likely be sitting on a respectable market share right now.
Once you have the user base, apps will be developed... Few people will develop apps if there is little or no target market for them, and few people will buy a device for which there are very few applications. It's a catch 22, and something drastic like an extremely low price is needed to overcome that.
