What if there really is not a tablet market? Only an iPad market?

Again things are living up to the title of this thread. It is looking more and more like that consumers are unwilling to "risk" their own money on anything but an iPad. They will take the "risk" with a phone when the carrier is paying a large chunk and they know they can get a new one in 2 years. I thought that HP had a good chance with the touchpad, but alas now we have to wait to see if Amazon can break the iPad death grip.
 
Again things are living up to the title of this thread. It is looking more and more like that consumers are unwilling to "risk" their own money on anything but an iPad. They will take the "risk" with a phone when the carrier is paying a large chunk and they know they can get a new one in 2 years. I thought that HP had a good chance with the touchpad, but alas now we have to wait to see if Amazon can break the iPad death grip.

And the fact that Best Buy is GIVING AWAY Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1's with purchase of a $1500 HDTV speaks volumes.
 
Yep. Can't help but think this will build in the general public's mind that there are iPads - and pale imitators not long for this world. Not saying it's true, but that this is the image that is building.

Now- surely HP is not going to spin off their printer business?


I was thinking about this some more, and one of the things that jumps out to me is that the iPad is likely to be like the iPod is to MP3 players. There are a ton of imitators out there, but none can compete with the iPod (in any of its forms). If you WANT a portable music player, the VAST MAJORITY of people get an iPod if they can afford it. I know in my house, long before I had an iPad or a Mac, we have had iPods (5GB, 20GB, 30GB, 160GB Classic, Nano 4th, Nano 5th, Nano 6th, ipod touch 2, ipod touch 3.... yeah, we have had a LOT of iPods.... :) ).
 
This post from the HP thread provides more to the argument of the strength of the iPad:


It's iPad or nothing, survey says | Wireless - CNET News

Interesting killing the tablet, survey shows they are (now were) #2 in interest:


94% of 1100 potential tablet buyers identified the iPad, with the now dead TouchPad from HP in a distant second, and Xoom third at 8%. The HTC Flyer 4.3%, and the Nook Color 3.6%.

Here is the actual report: http://www.rwbaird.com/docs/Aug2011USTabletSurvey.pdf

AND yes Diogen, it is a survey of U.S. users, and the sample is biased towards affluent males. The report itself if filled with a lot of interesting data.
 
rockymtnhigh said:
I know in my house, long before I had an iPad or a Mac, we have had iPods (5GB, 20GB, 30GB, 160GB Classic, Nano 4th, Nano 5th, Nano 6th, ipod touch 2, ipod touch 3.... yeah, we have had a LOT of iPods.... :) ).
Steve Jobs here. Thank you...

:)

I played with the Touch Pad at Staples the other day and someone had tried to download a bunch of Apps which caused some internal database to fill up. Every 30 seconds this pop-up came up saying that the Touch Pad needed to be reset to Factory to proceed! FAIL!

When the Touch Pad finally came back from the dead, it was about as responsive as the RIM Playbook. The multitasking worked as advertised, but being able to watch videos while reading e-mail actually means listening to the audio while the E-mail app was active.

But the HP TP was just not as responsive as the iPad. It was just annoying enough that it would drive me nuts over time. Also, from a power-down, it took over two minutes to start up and respond to touch. Even coming out of sleep took a second or two.

Let's see what Amazon can do. I mean, we know responsive tablets are doable. Who knows? Maybe it is Magic...
 
Steve Jobs here. Thank you...

:)

I played with the Touch Pad at Staples the other day and someone had tried to download a bunch of Apps which caused some internal database to fill up. Every 30 seconds this pop-up came up saying that the Touch Pad needed to be reset to Factory to proceed! FAIL!

When the Touch Pad finally came back from the dead, it was about as responsive as the RIM Playbook. The multitasking worked as advertised, but being able to watch videos while reading e-mail actually means listening to the audio while the E-mail app was active.

But the HP TP was just not as responsive as the iPad. It was just annoying enough that it would drive me nuts over time. Also, from a power-down, it took over two minutes to start up and respond to touch. Even coming out of sleep took a second or two.

Let's see what Amazon can do. I mean, we know responsive tablets are doable. Who knows? Maybe it is Magic...

See this from Macrumors about the HP TouchPad: HP's webOS Reportedly Runs Significantly Faster on iPad 2 Than on TouchPad - Mac Rumors

They actually managed to run the OS on an iPad 2, and it smoked performance on their own TouchPad.
 
This article nails the problem for ipad competitors in the tablet market.

HP single-handedly destroys non-iPad tablet market | ZDNet


Apple sell millions of iPads every quarter, and it seems that most tech companies have no idea why it sells. In order to try to compete with the iPad, HP developed a tablet with a design and the tech specs similar to that of the iPad, priced it like the iPad, spent a ton of money on commercials featuring celebrities, and pushed the tablet out to big retailers in huge quantities.

And still no one cared about the TouchPad.

The reason: People are buying the iPad not because it’s a tablet, but because it is an iPad. Apple has NOT carved out a market for tablets, Apple carved out a market for the iPad. Think about it: When Apple released the iPod back in 2001, did this create an enormous market for media players? No. It created an enormous market for the iPod.

This is exactly the argument I made above about the iPad when comparing it to the iPod. Its the iPod and everybody else; its the iPad and everybody else.
 
Two more articles:

Tablet Forecast Increased as Apple

Apple is expected to account for 74 percent of tablet sales this year (44.2 million iPads)and keep the lion's share of the market through 2013. In 2015, Apple is forecasted to sell more than 120 million tablets and hold a share of 44 percent. Imagine, at an average sales price of $600, 120 million tablets could turn into a $72 billion market for Apple, if IHS numbers will become reality.

72 billion in sales is a lot of $$

Acer Says Tablet Fever is Already Cooling Down

Other players in the PC sector reportedly share the same opinion: that tablets are mainly marketed for entertainment purposes and will eventually reach market saturation. Once that happens, consumer desire to replace their notebooks and/or desktops with tablets will diminish. Tablet volumes will then reach a certain level and sales will stagnate.

Wishful thinking? No need to try to beat Apple in the tablet market because it will just die off anyways?

Maybe all the Geeks and Techies that would buy something other than iOS market is becoming saturates?
 
Interesting thing about the other 26% of tablet sales. every one of those will now go out and buy an ipad. Don't believe it? Just ask Rocky. Better off just buying an ipad in the first place. :)

I also agree that ipad sales will eventually die off. That will happen when everyone on the planet owns 3 of them. Meanwhile, I'll continue to acquire more Apple stock.
 
I also agree that ipad sales will eventually die off. That will happen when everyone on the planet owns 3 of them. Meanwhile, I'll continue to acquire more Apple stock.

I do not think it is like the iPod market, where once you have a few you do not need more. While there is definitely a limit to the number you use at once, these things are like computers and they will slowly get outdated and you will want to upgrade. I think it is similar to the laptop market. Yes the market will virtually stop adding new users, but the existing users will have to continue the upgrade every few years.
 
Interesting thing about the other 26% of tablet sales. every one of those will now go out and buy an ipad. Don't believe it? Just ask Rocky. Better off just buying an ipad in the first place. :)

I also agree that ipad sales will eventually die off. That will happen when everyone on the planet owns 3 of them. Meanwhile, I'll continue to acquire more Apple stock.


While my wife continues to use the Galaxy Tab -- out of sheer unwillingness to abandon it after paying so much for it -- I suspect by Christmas we will be a two iPad household. My son is out of luck. Not spending money on one for him. :) But he can have the Tab. Pretty decent for phone games at 7".
 
mike- I should have said sales growth will eventually die off or flatten. Sales will continue as you said with obsolescence and maybe also some breakdowns.

There was a time when homes had one telephone, one TV set. Today we have TV's in every room and watch TV on our phones. Every person has one phone some, like my wife, has two cell phones.

ipads are also achieving the multi dedicated use status, so that one person may use several around them for special dedicated applications. eg. say I keep one in the kitchen for cooking support. One in the library as a reader. One in the home theater for programming, and finally have one in my travel kit for.
 
mike- I should have said sales growth will eventually die off or flatten. Sales will continue as you said with obsolescence and maybe also some breakdowns.

There was a time when homes had one telephone, one TV set. Today we have TV's in every room and watch TV on our phones. Every person has one phone some, like my wife, has two cell phones.

ipads are also achieving the multi dedicated use status, so that one person may use several around them for special dedicated applications. eg. say I keep one in the kitchen for cooking support. One in the library as a reader. One in the home theater for programming, and finally have one in my travel kit for.

I can definitely see that happening. Kind of like what happened with flat screen TVs. People buy one for the living room. Later upgrade it and the living room one moves to the bedroom, then the office, then the kids room... Slowly spreading throughout the house.
 
I saw that Apple has dropped their refurbished prices for the original iPad. If you can find it in stock, the 16 GB Wi-Fi iPad Prime is now $299. The other versions are also $100 cheaper: the 32 GB Wi-Fi/16 GB 3G model is $399, $499 gets you the 64 GB Wi-Fi or 32 GB 3G model, and it's $599 for the 64 GB 3G model.

The timing makes me think that HP's move to fire-sale the TouchPad must have gotten Apple's attention. Apple countered with "$99 for an iPad 1 clone? For $200 more you can have the original..."
 

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