HP's Tablet: The Epilogue
The iPad sales are constantly growing as more and more countries join the iPad market. But one should not be afraid that Apple will saturate the market. Most people are sitting on the fence waiting for more favorable conditions or price offers. Not belittling the functionality Apple's device enjoys and quality performance Apple’s products always boast of we only want to highlight that there is a considerable number of disadvantages which are quite difficult to put up with.
The greatest disadvantage (it is quite difficult to call it a shortcoming) is the overall closeness of the iPad system, which consists of a long list of clearly expressed do’s and don’ts. Of course, one can easily had its tablet jailbroken, other OS installed and so on and so forth. But the majority of such actions are more appealing to a rather geek community than a common law-abiding customer. So, in fact, there are lots of people who are waiting for some other tablets, which would allow more freedom for their customers and owners.
HP’s idea to launch two tablets is rather unexpected and while common consumers will be glad to have something more open than Apple’s products, the major threat to the tablet popularity is in lack of apps suitable for the platform. Even when used in smartphones the tablet could not boast of many apps and the situation has not improved since then as developers seemed to lose their interest and faith in it.
As for the Windows-based Slate, it will have to survive a severe competition war which is going to unfold at the enterprise segment of the market. With Cisco’s Cius focusing the same audience and supporting all the additional products Cisco can offer and RIM’s tablet which will definitely address its usual enterprise market, HP’s tablet already has many competitors. The only its advantage is Windows platform which is familiar to every office citizen and thus demands no additional training or maintenance and allows to run a great number of enterprise products and programs developed specifically to be used in the Windows OS environment. In addition, Android with its quite a free system is not really suitable for enterprise needs and there are rumors it is quite unlikely that RIM will be able to deliver something competitive due to the overall obsolescence of its OS, though anything can happen.
It’s yet unclear what will become of HP’s plans to launch 2 tablets to the market at the same time. But considering offending plans of other leading manufacturers the market can become really an overcrowded place.