It has been just over a year since its debut and the iPad tablet has already made Apple the undisputed leader in the tablet world. The iPad sold a reported 15 million units alone in 2010 after first shipping in April. As iPad becomes more popular to consumers, other companies are getting their products known in the tablet world. For example companies like HP, Motorola, and Dell are just some of the many major companies that have tried to compete with the iPad. But how successful/important are tablets in the technology world? Is this a fad or trend that will only be around for the next couple years, or are tablets going to become the next big thing? It seems now a days it's Apple versus everyone else; and that might very well be true. The numbers don’t lie either, Apple had an 84 percent share of the tablet market. Today since the technology is new, there is a vast growth opportunity for other companies to challenge Apple, the only problem…will tablets still be popular. Apple dominates many aspects of the technology world. For example, the iPhone, iPod/iTouch, and Apple computers all dominate their respective categories. All the other competitors have a hard time making a product that comes close to rivaling what Apple has to offer to its consumers. The iPad is just another step in Apples recent dominance, but is there hope for companies with the same size network to create a product that out does Apple? In my opinion, the answer is no. Apple has too much power and has too much of wide consumer base to lose to another company. The recent iPad 2 that just came out has all the improvements that the already groundbreaking iPad original didn’t have. Time will tell the tale between Apple’s tablets and their competitors.
I agree with you Katherine about Apple’s products dominating other tablet products made from other companies. Apple has become very popular in the past 10 years. People these days like to have things fast and better and Apple does it better than the competitors (in many people’s opinions). Although Apple’s products are expensive, they are stylish and people like them more. Although the price may be high, there is still a high demand for Apple’s products. Apple makes their products fast and better each time they are made, which may also be a reason why people love them so much. I don’t think that anything will outsell Apple’s products because people who can afford their products will probably end up buying Apple instead of their leading competitors that sell PCs. If you compare the ipods that used to be sold, compared to the one’s today, they look pretty different. Apple products have gone from non-touch screen to touch screen in just a few years. So maybe this ipad is just a fad that will soon disappear when the next big Apple product comes out, but there is no doubt that Apple will remain in the lead in electronics, at least for the next few years.
ReplyDeleteJust as Katherine and Erin point out, the iPad 2 is the clear leader in the worldwide “tablet race”. They have developed a stable operating system encompassing useful features, battery efficiency and quick processor speeds – all wrapped up in one stylish device. Apple has truly proven their versatility given the fact that there are only a few comparable tablets, but these tablets are often hundreds of dollars more than the newly-released iPad 2. Another important factor in Apple’s immense success is it’s stable iOS operating system. Though the iPad has only been around for a little over a year, Apple has been developing their mobile operating system since the release of the original EDGE iPhone. It’s obvious that Apple had a head start, but it’s only a matter of time until competitors will catch up and be able to provide a cheaper, more useful alternative to the iPad 2.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the statement by Erin that says most people would buy Apple over the competitor if they have the money. In this case, having an Apple product makes more sense then those trying to compete with the company.
ReplyDelete-Mason R.
I agree with apples current dominance in the tablet market. I did however want to interject. I believe that many companies products do rival Apples products. In our mixed economy they may not outsell the apple products, but there are definetly some products that out do Apple products. For instance the cost of an HP computer that has internal hardware that is ahead of apples macbook not only costs less, but is also faster. The fact of the matter is, that there is a certain image that comes with having the apple product. There are many phones that have newer technology than the iphone, but most people's needs and wants lead them to buying an iphone because "everyone" has one. Apple does outsell most competition and also makes much more profit than the majority of other companies. In my opinion, this has not happened only because of their products out doing some others. The real reason apple is able to dominate the market in most aspects comes from the incentive people have to buy apple products. The incentive in this case is the status and that feeling of having the "best" product, as society has made it out to be.
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