NEW DELHI: It is believed there is no tablet market. There is only an iPad market. Two years after Steve Jobs unveiled iPad and virtually created a new market, Google and Microsoft are getting serious about tablets, which are becoming crucial in the emerging digital ecosystem and enticing customers away from laptops and computers.
Google, which competes with Apple through its Android operating software in the phone market, will launch its tablet on June 27 at Google I/O, the company's annual event for developers. While tablets powered by Android are available for quite some time now, they have failed to dent the iPad market. According to figures from IDC, a research firm, Samsung, which is Google's biggest hardware partner, had a global share of just 5.8% in the tablet market compared to Apple's 54.7% in Q4, 2011. IDC estimates this year the total size of tablet market will be 106.1 million units.
"Android tablets have so far failed to match iPad in terms of user experience. Apple has built a superior ecosystem around its tablet. With its tablet, Google is hoping it will be able to offer better user experience," said Vishal Tripathi, a principal analyst with Gartner.
Google's tablet announcement is coming barely a week after Microsoft unveiled Surface, a tablet running Windows 8. "Google believes it has given its partners ample time to innovate and compete but they have been unsuccessful versus the iPad. Microsoft sees what its partners have planned for Windows 8 tablets and believes it must take the matters in its own hands," said Patrick Moorhead, president at Moor Insights & Strategy, firm that advices computer hardware companies.
Google's tablet, likely to be branded Nexus so that it can complement the company's Nexus phones, will have a screen size of 7-inches. Google is also hoping to take on Amazon with its tablet. Amazon launched Kindle Fire last year at an attractive price of $199 in the US. According to IDC, Amazon shipped 4.7 million Kindle Fires in Q4 of 2011 to become the second largest tablet vendor after Apple with a market share of 16.8%.
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