When Apple unveiled the iPad in 2010, smartphone vendors were caught off guard and they rushed to launch similar tablets to take advantage of the new market that had been created. Their early efforts were absolutely awful, however. Android slates have gotten much, much better since those early days and now Android vendors’ combined tablet market share looks ready to pass Apple’s share. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company isn’t done setting trends though, and its iPad mini is the latest device Android vendors will look to base their new models on moving forward. More →
Reviewers loved the iPad mini and every indication suggests the smaller Apple slate is selling to consumers quite well. The one item that seems to be on everyone’s wish list, however, is a Retina display. Coming from Apple devices like the full-size iPad and the iPhone 5, the iPad mini’s pixel-starved screen can be painful to use at times, but that will change later this year when Apple launches the second-generation iPad mini with an updated Retina display. According to CNET, NPD DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim says LG Display will begin mass production of the new iPad mini’s 2,048 x 1,536-pixel Retina display in either June or July ahead of a release this fall. Buying the new iPad mini this fall might be a bad idea though, since Shim believes an upgraded third-generation model will launch just a few months later in Q1 2014.
Anyone holding out for lower-cost Windows tablets may not have that much longer to wait. PCWorld reports that an image and product description for the world’s first small Windows-based tablet, called the Acer Iconia W3-810-1600, leaked onto Amazon over the weekend before being quickly taken down. From a specs perspective, the new tablet features an 8.1-inch display and 32GB of storage and was selling on Amazon for $380 before it was removed. Microsoft recently made some changes to its Windows 8 hardware certification guidelines that gave OEMs more freedom to make smaller tablets by knocking down the display resolution requirements to 1024 x 768 pixels at a depth of 32 bits for smaller devices.
The iPad may have the highest customer satisfaction ratings of any tablet in the world, but Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates thinks that many of its users are “frustrated” because it doesn’t come with a physical keyboard and it lacks access to Microsoft Office. Business Insider reports that Gates, while being interviewed on CNBC on Monday, said that a lot of iPad users “are frustrated, they can’t type, they can’t create documents, they don’t have Office there.” As an alternative, Gates plugged Microsoft’s own Surface tablet that features the “portability of the tablet but the richness of the PC” and that not coincidentally has a physical keyboard accessory and access to Office. Of course, given how weak the Surface’s early sales have been compared to the iPad, it’s tough to argue that any frustration with Apple’s tablet is prompting consumers to flee to Windows-based tablets.
Apple is widely expected to launch an updated version of its iPad mini tablet later this year with a new Retina display, but consumers waiting for the refreshed tablet might want to skip the second-generation model and wait a bit longer. NPD DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim on Sunday told CNET that Apple’s next-generation iPad mini tablet with a Retina display is on track for a third-quarter launch this year. But just as Apple’s third- and fourth-generation full-size iPad launches were surprisingly close to one another, Apple reportedly already has plans to launch another new iPad mini in the first-quarter next year with a faster processor. More →
If at first you dont’t succeed… Microsoft is reportedly developing a new Surface tablet with a 7.5-inch display. NPD DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim told CNET on Thursday that an upcoming Microsoft slate will feature a 7.5-inch screen with 1,400 x 1,050 resolution, which works out to 223 pixels per inch. His supply chain sources say mass production schedules are currently being discussed, but the new Surface won’t launch this year. More →
Microsoft will reportedly unveil sequels to its first two Surface tablets at its Build developer conference, which is scheduled to run from June 26th through June 28th. Unnamed sources from Microsoft’s supply chain have told Digitimes as much, and they claim initial components for the Intel-based version of the next-generation Surface began shipping in late 2012. According to the report, the next-generation Surface tablets will be smaller than the current models, with screens measuring between 7 and 9 inches diagonally. An earlier report suggested that Microsoft is developing an “Xbox Surface” gaming tablet with a 7-inch 720p display and an ARM-based Texas Instruments processor, but it is unclear if this gaming device is one of the tablets mentioned in Digitimes’ report.
Samsung’s rapid rise in the smartphone market has certainly put more pressure on Apple than it’s faced in quite some time, and now it looks as though Samsung may be eating into Apple’s share in the tablet market as well. The latest numbers from IDC show that Apple’s share of the global tablet market has shrunk year over year from 65.3% in the first quarter of 2012 to 39.6% in Q1 2013. What’s more, IDC has found that Samsung’s tablet shipments have surged by 283% year over year and now account for 17.9% of all tablet shipments, up from just 11.3% of all tablet shipments in Q1 2012. So while Apple is still the clear leader in the tablet market, it no longer holds the dominant position it used to have despite the fact that its overall shipments increased from 11.8 million units in Q1 2012 to 19.5 million units in Q1 2013. IDC’s full press release on the new tablet numbers is posted below. More →
That chomping sound you hear is the iPad mini eating into the sales of its older sibling. Unnamed sources have told Digitimes that Apple shipped 12.5 million iPad minis last quarter that accounted for roughly 64% of all iPads shipped. The reported iPad mini shipment numbers would give Apple’s 8-inch tablet a significant edge over the rival Google Nexus 7 tablet, which Digitimes‘ sources say has totalled around 4.5 million units shipped since its launch last summer. Earlier rumors have indicated that Apple might be working on two newer versions of the iPad mini for fall release: A more expensive version with a full Retina display and a cheaper version that could be priced competitively with the Nexus 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire HD.
In the wake of grim PC sales, HP may be preparing to release a high-end Android tablet in the coming months. A listing on the AnTuTu benchmark network, per TabTech, revealed a new tablet known as the HP SlateBook 10 X2. The slate is equipped with a 10.1-inch display, a new quad-core Tegra 4 processor clocked at 1.8GHz and Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. HP recently entered the Android tablet market with the mid-range Slate 7 that’s selling for only $169.99. The affordable tablet is equipped with a 7-inch 1024 x 600 pixel resolution display, a 1.6GHz dual-core processor, 8GB of internal storage, 1GB of RAM, Beats Audio, a microSD card and a 3-megapixel rear camera.
Given the epic flop that was the BlackBerry PlayBook, it’s easy to understand why BlackBerry would want to forget all about tablets. That said, it’s one thing to ignore tablets and another to predict that tablets will go away all together. While speaking at the Milken Institute conference in Los Angeles on Monday, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins said that BlackBerry doesn’t need to invest more resources in creating another tablet because tablets will all but disappear from the market within the next five years. More →
Despite increased competition from Samsung, Amazon and other rivals, Apple’s iPad is still America’s favorite tablet according to J.D. Power and Associates’ most recent survey. The organization released Volume 1 of its 2013 U.S. Tablet Satisfaction Study on Monday and found that the iPad still ranks highest in customer satisfaction among all tablets, albeit by a narrowing margin. J.D.Powers’ latest survey polled 1,857 consumers in the U.S. and found that Apple’s iPad scored 836 out of a possible 1,000 points. Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet line scored 829 and Samsung’s tablets retained their No. 3 position with 822 points. A graph that illustrating the results of the survey follows below. More →
