By James Cathey
10 Jul, 2011 9:00 pm
A recent study by IDC has taken the lives of e-readers and tablets by storm. In the first quarter of 2011 there was a 28% drop to 7.2 million in the tablet market. 65% Apple iPads, 34% Android tablets and a minimum amount of Windows tablets. The repercussions of Apples back
lighting issues, slow production ramp and supply constraints is where most fault is placed on this market drop.
A lot of the struggles from rival companies come from their own strategically made mistakes, analysts say. Companies like Samsung and Motorola have made wrong assumptions for users to sign up for their carrier data plans, due to the amount of trust they have in themselves being experienced as phone makers. The Motorola Xoom has been long used as an example tying the Android 3 tablet to Verizion upping the minimum price to $800 and putting pressure on customers to sign up for the optional $20 a month data plan.
Eventually the company fixed the problem with a $599 (now $499) Wi-Fi Xoom. This only came up after Apple released the iPad 2 slashing Motorola in price and performance. Motorola only shipped 250,000 units, just under 3.5 percent of tablets shipped in early 2011.
According to IDC, tablets are still expected to do better than ever. The projection has been bumped up for the year from 50.4 million to 53.5 million still holding in Apples favor.
As things are changing in the world of tablets, they are also changing in the world of e-readers. Amazon’s lead in e-reader sales has been replaced by Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color. IDC would provide any numbers but insists that the Nook won through it’s use of color and that e-paper was a liability, not an advantage for the e-reader.
Although the rate of e-reader growth will be left behind the tablet category at 16.2 million readers of different kinds, they are still expected to grow 24% in 2011 vs. 2010
Amazon’s new defenses may be explained by their leaked decision to enter the world of tablets with at least one Android device near September. They have been very successful in traditional books but has opened the door for Apple and Barnes & Noble to take on the subscription reading market with more efficiency in magazine layouts and various extras like audio, video and games.
via electronista
