Competing against Apple’s iPad tablet has been very unfruitful for those trying to topple the market leader. Sadly for its rivals, the iPad’s fate isn’t going to change soon, as the iPad is going to get a larger tablet market share, more than anyone expected.
According to Charlie Wolf, an analyst from Needham, Apple’s iPad will continue to dominate the tablet market until the next decade. He said that it will end 2011 with an 85 percent share, and while that will decline over the years, it will not fall so deep that the company will lose its lead, which it claimed when the device was first launched. He said that in 2015, the iPad will have a market share of 72.5 percent, with over 101 million units sold.
Wolf said that tablets of the future are more likely to steal each other’s market shares, but the iPad will still be on top. He argued that the tablet market, which is jammed with models from RIM, HP, Xoom and others, is overcrowded.
“All of them have been greeted with a yawn and lackluster sales,” said the analyst. “None have been able to undercut the aggressively priced iPad, because the iPad’s component costs are materially lower than those of competing tablets. In the case of tablets, the only thing that matters — that turns what’s otherwise a slab into a versatile device — are the apps. And the applications available on the tablets introduced this year number at best in the hundreds. In comparison, more than 100,000 applications are available on the iPad.”
However, a DigiTimes report said that shipments of non-Apple tablets are expected to increase 134 percent in 2012, compared to the 55 percent of Apple’s iPad. It also suggests that the demand for iPad is nearing saturation levels, and while shipments for the iPad will grow from 36 million to about 55 million units next year, shipments of non-Apple tablets will increase from 20 million to around 45 million units.
via: T3
