Totally into tablet computers
Published 12:01 am Thursday, January 6, 2011
LAS VEGAS — A research group says the global market for tablet computers such as the iPad will almost triple by the end of 2014.
Yankee Group said Wednesday it expects tablet sales to rise to $46 billion in 2014 from $16 billion in 2010. The researchers said tablet sales are rising fast
er than high-definition TV sets, handheld gaming consoles or even MP3 players.
Apple Inc.’s iPad, the main player in today’s tablet market, costs $499 to $829 depending on the configuration. According to the forecast, the average tablet price tag will be $237 in 2015, less than half of the 2010 average price of $645.
By 2014, North America will hold just 17 percent of the global tablet market, down from 37 percent in 2010, according to the report, as demand in Asia rises.
The market for e-readers, such as Amazon’s Kindle, is expected to quadruple, from about $2 billion in 2010 to $8 billion in 2014. Yankee Group considers e-readers a separate category and doesn’t include them in the tablet forecast. Taiwan’s AsusTek Computer Inc. plans to start selling an array of tablet computers — including hybrids that sit somewhere between a laptop and a tablet — with the hope that variety is the best weapon against Apple Inc.’s iPad and other similar gadgets.
Asus chairman Jonney Shih unveiled the new devices in Las Vegas. They included the Eee Pad Transformer, which is a laptop that splits in two to function as a tablet, and the Eee Pad Slider, a tablet with a keyboard that slides out of its left side.
“We admire companies like Apple that offer great innovation, but they provide very limited choices for the customers,” Shih said. “Different kinds of customers have different kinds of needs, and the best way to better serve them is to provide choice.”
Asus, which essentially created the market for low-price netbooks with the 2007 launch of the Eee PC line, will need this strategy to pan out if consumers gravitate toward tablets as quickly as analysts expect. And Asus won’t just be contending with the iPad: The company is just one of many big names expected to unveil tablets at the gadget show.
Analysts believe the iPad will still account for the bulk of the 55 million tablets that Gartner Inc. expects will be shipped this year, but there’s still room for rivals to vie for sales of the remaining 10 million to 15 million devices.
Asus hopes the Transformer and its other tablets will be among the winners. When using a full-sized keyboard docking station, the Transformer appears to be a black laptop, but once opened its screen detaches by sliding out of a slot on the keyboard’s edge. The device’s touch-screen will measure 10.1 inches diagonally and is half an inch thick.
Shih said the Transformer will run the upcoming Honeycomb version of Google Inc.’s Android software, which will be more geared toward tablets than the current version for smart phones. It will get up to 16 hours of battery life and include an Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor. The Transformer is set to begin selling in April for $399 to $699, depending on its configuration. Asus has not said how much memory it will include.
