iPad 2
Apples’ competitors in the PC tablet market are likely to miss sales targets due to a limited consumer interest. The anticipated loss of revenue is due to delaying the launch of their respective touchscreen devices after reports that the Android Honetycomb 3.0 was inadequate.
As reported by cheapest-iPod.com, the Honeycomb OS was diagnosed as “unstable” by industry experts due to the fact that Google had not given enough attention to detail. The damaging reports forced manufacturers to reassess their software and delay the launch until the fault is rectified. Apple were subsequently left an open playing field and took the opportunity to corner the tablet market.
The iPad2 was already a popular choice with consumers and retail outlets across the United States, Canada and Europe had to deal with constant sell outs in the first few week. In contrast, the poor sales performances of the Motorola Xoom – thought to be the closest rival to the iPad2 – suffered even greater losses following the damaging reports of an insufficient Androids OS. The Japanese giants were subsequently resigned to improve their model and returned to the drawing baord to make plans for an improved version of the tablet.
Blackberry Playbook
The negative feedback also hit other tablet manufacturers using the Android Honeycomb operating system and a number of companies have been forced into delaying the launch of their touchscreen devices until the problems have been rectified. Industry analysts now say that subsequent releases are subject to “high risk” and have predicted the delay has shortened the tablet market to around just 20 million units.
As a consequence manufacturers are facing massive losses due to an excess inventory and may have to consider increasing the number of features on the device or reducing the retail price to avoid suffering a drastic shortfall. Following the natural disasters in the Far East earlier this year, Japanese outfits are likely to be hit the hardest.
Many of the manufacturers in question are already handicapped as they are new to the Touchscreen tablet market whereas Apples success with the first-generation iPad gave them a distinct advantage already. Samsung and Motorola have already suffered weaker-then-expected sales and industry publication DigiTimes report that market watchers predict other fledgling companies will fair even worse.
“Since there are already many tablet PC models with different specifications causing a mess in the tablet PC ecosystem, the market watchers (are) concerned that the market will soon enter fierce competition with many players to start phasing out of the segment in the fourth quarter,” the report said.
To make matters worse, Amazon announced plans to launch their own LCD touchscreen tablet later this year and indicated it would have better functionality than existing devices carrying the e-ink base Kindle reader. Such a device will ultimately allow users to watch movies and listen to music with improved performance. A move from another major player in the consumer market will further dent the sales of second tier manufacturers.
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