Should I Choose, a Tablet or an Apple iPad: The diverse landscape in the consumer electronics market

The Apple iPad has formidable competitors in the guise of the tablet and smartphone. These are the little brothers of the consumer electronics market but they do pack a real punch. In fact some reviewers are convinced that this will be the future of the market especially given its volatility. The purpose of this article is to assess the kinds of opportunities that consumers have and the best way of approaching the various aspects of the product.

This was in fact the first company to attempt the marriage between a smartphone and a tablet. It came in the guise of the Galaxy Note with its 5.3-inch screen. Playfully, the reviewers branded it the ‘phablet’ in reference to its component parts of a phone and a tablet. Essentially it offered most of the critical functionality of the personal computer yet it conspicuously avoided the bulkiness which spelt doom for the PC long before the latest waver thin electronic gadgets hit the market. Nevertheless some people felt that its size was not ideal because it was too large for a standard pocket and yet its productivity was not as good as the old computers and laptops. Meanwhile the rest of the industry was trying to get over the blatant success of the iPhone and iPad.

We then had the slightly comical spectacle of the Padfone. In reality this was nothing more than a high specification Android smartphone which came with a 4.3-inch screen. Consumers were delighted at the dimensions which could easily be pocketed. Moreover it could sit snugly on the Padfone station. This was the 10.1-inch display that included a slot for the Padfone in the middle. One of the clever things they did was to include an app that automatically resized the surface depending on the screen that was being used. Although the price and details are sketchy at the moment, consumers are considering whether this is going to be an effective rival to the Apple iPad.

Unfortunately Microsoft Windows has not been very successful in the tablet market. The redeeming feature is the introduction of Windows 8 which is expected to act as the perfect complement to the latest breed of powerful tablet computers. That is where the brand will be able to compete with Android devices and the Apple iPad. At the moment we are not entirely sure about the success of this project because the Apple brand is constantly updating its tactics and by the time Windows 8 is launched, they could be onto another winner. They have created a metro interface which is very different from anything that the consumers have known before. This could backfire on the company big time. On the redeeming side there is hope that it will continue to impress with its touch-sensitive display capabilities.

If you are looking for real competition against the Apple iPad then the Amazon Kindle Fire is ready to give you hope. The first advantage that it has over the Apple product is in terms of price. It costs a distinctly affordable $200. On the downside it is not as comprehensive as the Kindle eBook reader. Therefore it would be inaccurate to describe it as an all-purpose tablet. Some of the amazing things that the Kindle eBook reader can do include the ability to play movies ,surf the net and run apps that are extracted from the Amazon Online Store. On the other hand it runs on the older version of the Android 2.3 Gingerbread system. Although it has been cleverly customized, there is still something missing. Generally speaking we are of the view that the Apple iPad should be able to cope regardless of what Amazon does in response to its dominance.

All these devices are a poor relation to the Apple iPad 2. What will happen to them when the retina display version comes into force? We are of the view that the next generation of Android 4 tablets will have to share a market that has so far been monolithic for the most part. This is good news for the consumers because they can really demand the things that are important to them including USB ports, memory card slots, high quality apps and a whole set of keyboard docks.

Resources:

1. J. Prokazza,” How does Apple's iPad compare with Android tablet computers?”, 17^th Jun 2012, Computer Active