PC Manufacturers Phasing Out of Tablet Sector in 2012?
Sources claim that PC vendors like Acer and Dell will phase out of the tablet business next year due to fierce competition from Apple, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Unnamed sources from the "upstream supply chain" believe that Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and other big-name PC vendors will likely begin to gradually phase out of the tablet sector in 2012.
According to the sources, these vendors don't have any kind of advantage over the likes of Apple, Amazon and Barnes & Noble due to their lack of strong content support and competitive hardware prices. As an example, Amazon is currently offering its Android-based Kindle Fire tablet for $199 whereas Barnes & Noble offers the Nook Simple Touch at $99.
Because of these competitive price points, "pure hardware players" are unlikely to profit from the tablet market in 2012. To make matters worse, it's believed that these devices will eventually be offered free given that Amazon and Barnes & Noble mainly profit from their content platforms.
Still, the sources also see troubled times for Apple. They point out that, while the iPad 2 still sees a strong demand, sales have been lower than those of the original iPad. This may indicate that enthusiasm for tablets on a whole may be quickly dwindling away.
Is this lack of enthusiasm based on tablet prices? As seen with HP's webOS-based TouchPad, consumers will scoop up a tablet left and right when the price is just right... or in this case, really cheap. Amazon estimates that it's $199 7-inch Kindle Fire will sell around 5 million units by the end of the year, or rather, in the first six weeks of its presence on the market. Apple's original iPad has sold 28 million units since its launch in early 2010.
"We believe the Fire's low $199 price point and broad distribution ... will help expand the market to consumers who previously may have been reluctant to purchase a higher-priced tablet," said JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth who believes Amazon will sell 20 million more units in 2012.
That said, is the overall price of each tablet the industry's bottleneck? Or is having a huge, feature-rich content service simply the key to launching a successful tablet? This may be what PC vendors have realized, and why they may phase out of the tablet sector next year. Still, perhaps Windows 8 will be their champion...
This Tab Fad will end soon enough...
I don't see the tab fad "ending" persay anytime soon. The product is simply following a typical prodcut penentration curve.
Yes there will be a reduction of choices, in terms of brands and suppliers. however, the product will continue to penetrate various market segments. There is plenty of demand and growth avalible for these tabs.
I agree. I think tablets are not necessarily a fad but are more a way of how we do things in the future. I think the transformer is ahead of its time and I think an operating system like windows 8 might make a device complete with being able to carry it arround or attach it to the keyboard.
HP was stupid for releasing a product and then getting out of game when the product wasn't out long enough to catch on. WebOS was a great product, unfortunately, it wasn't marketed properly and failed.
It all depends on what the bottom line of the cost for the tablets are. If the cost of a tablet is $250, sell it for $275 and people will be all over that and even though you didn't make money on the first batch, you have at least established a name for yourself in the market. Of course if the cost of these tablets are $375 then I can see why they have no choice but to sell them for $399 and how it wouldn't pay to stay in the marketplace.
I'd take a tablet over a netbook any day of the week. Tablets have there uses, causal gaming, causal internet browsing, you can hook them up to your TV, good for video calling, there's many uses.
Do you have source for that comment? I've never read or heard anyone say anything of the sort.
after that people will eventually turn back to convertible laptop-tablet hybrids/laptops with touch-enabled detachable displays.
Do you have source for that comment? I've never read or heard anyone say anything of the sort.
I don't know about shouting from the streets, but Steve Jobs was certainly touting that launguage and I noticed a few sites picked up on that line.
There is nothing wrong with tablets, and my bet is that they will be a mainstay of the future (much like GPS and MP3 players; not everyone has/needs one, but they are fun accessories and useful to some). They will not replace desktops. They will not replace netbooks/laptops/ultrabooks. They will remain as a nitche market for people who want a simple cheap device as an extension of their more powerful/useful devices.
I think the thing hurting them most is the lack of professionally accepted applications such as Office. Once they make Win8 and Office for ARM there may be a resurgence of demand for tablets, but as of now it is a glorified phone, but without the phone, and you cannot work on it, so it is a little bit useless. Just a few software changes and the whole game might change.
Let me google that for you:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=pc+is+dead
It's all we've been hearing for the past year.
My only gripe is that developers don't seem to invest much money in the apps for them as they do for the Desktops/Laptops/Consoles. Most apps are just silly games or navigational/personal assistant type of stuff.
I'm sure being limited to a touchscreen is a pain. But still, more support is needed.
Anyway, there's still a lot of money to made in this sector, in the future. I suspect these companies are not quitting, and just hibernating, while plugging away at R&D to make a strong comeback when the timing is right.
They are unpractical to hold, without a stand almost unusable on the desktop, with a stand less portable and nice for transport, unprotected when they fall, the majority of them are overwhelmingly underpowered; do not have a hardware input device, but focus on a touch screen keyboard taking up 50% of screen space; batteries are very short lived and offer battery for only a few hours, dragging a hardware keyboard and mouse with a tablet just isn't it; they are too large to be fitting in your pocket, yet too small to comfortably read and work on, their 3G networks are overcharged (internet is too expensive, and mainly unnecessary and slow for most people)...
I think the public gets the picture, a tablet is just like MS VISTA, shiny and nice looking, and uncomfortable and not practical!
They had one advantage, they caused CPU's to be manufactured that where even more powerful per watt than before!
Back to netbooks guys!