As if the piss-poor showing of the Xoom and Galaxy Tab weren’t evidence enough of iPad’s market domination…
Gartner has issued a report showing Apple leading the tablet market for the next five years, with Google’s Android slowly chipping away. The most staggering figure, however, is the firm’s target that Apple will sell a staggering 138 million units by 2015. Wow.
Tablets are a new category that Apple has captured by the horns, just as it did by perfecting the MP3 player market with the iPod by selling 275 million in 9 years. If history repeats itself, I think these numbers are achievable. If anything, these figures may be a bit conservative, at least in terms of next year’s market share. Gartner pegs Android at 24% by next year. If Google expects this kind of performance, they are going to have to beat Apple on the price/performance ratio. Which they show no signs of doing at the moment. Steve Jobs dropped the bomb when his slide of $499 came up at last year’s iPad announcement. This sweet spot price point, in conjuction with the performance capabilities of even the original iPad as compared to current offerings, has just blown Apple’s competitors out of the water.
It’s going to be rough seas ahead for Android tablets.
