ipad competition

[Ratty]

I was reading the various blogs on the iPads potential competion.

Do you recall the WePad now known as the WeTab well this looks like it's no more than a rebadged OEM clone take a look the ExoPC slate and compare it with the WeTeb:

http://www.engadget.com/photos/exopc-slate-hands-on/#3025126

http://wetab.mobi/en/gallery

One of the same I think just with a different software interface.

I wonder how many more of these 'innoventive' tablet clones is going to reinvent it's self as the iPad killer.

 

[Battlestar]

I was reading the various blogs on the iPads potential competion.

Do you recall the WePad now known as the WeTab well this looks like it's no more than a rebadged OEM clone take a look the ExoPC slate and compare it with the WeTeb:

http://www.engadget.com/photos/exopc-slate-hands-on/#3025126

http://wetab.mobi/en/gallery

One of the same I think just with a different software interface.

I wonder how many more of these 'innoventive' tablet clones is going to reinvent it's self as the iPad killer.

Right now we have to wait for the HP Slate to come out with the Web OS. HP is the only current player in the market that can compete with Apple. All of the other manufacturers are just wanna bees.

 

[xraytech]

If and when the HP Slate comes out, it will be playing catch up. By that time iPad version 2 will probably be out.

 

[smiddlehurst]

Right now we have to wait for the HP Slate to come out with the Web OS. HP is the only current player in the market that can compete with Apple. All of the other manufacturers are just wanna bees.

Don't write off android. Google are iterating at a fearsome rate with that software and someone like htc could deliver a nice user experience with very little warning. It wouldn't be the complete package but could match the iPad in certain key areas and maybe surpass it in some.

Also, expect Microsoft to be working flat out on a tablet version of wp7. That almost seems like the natural platform for that interface anyway and if anyone can get a foothold in a new market ms can, especially if they decide it's worth throwing money at.

 

[JayMysterio]

Microsoft had the best chance to be real competition with the Courier, but they killed it. To bad too, it looked sweet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WYWGKnVkEw

 

[Spudracer]

MS is wandering in the wilderness looking for a clue. HP gave up waiting on MS and has started from scratch with the Palm OS. Google is the only one with a prayer (OS and financial resources) to have a go at Apple with a tablet device. Everyone else is just wasting time and money. As someone else said, by the time anyone fields any actual device Apple will be on generation 2 or 3 of the iPad with 200,000 apps in the wild delivered through a juggernaut distribution platform. As usual, the first guy to market becomes very hard to displace.

 

[Jaro65]

Microsoft had the best chance to be real competition with the Courier, but they killed it. To bad too, it looked sweet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WYWGKnVkEw

The Courier looked very interesting indeed. I'm sure though that iPad pricing took legs from under a number of potential iPad competitors.

 

[allmIne]

Microsoft had the best chance to be real competition with the Courier, but they killed it. To bad too, it looked sweet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WYWGKnVkEw

So awesome.

 

[BergerFan]

MS is wandering in the wilderness looking for a clue. HP gave up waiting on MS and has started from scratch with the Palm OS. Google is the only one with a prayer (OS and financial resources) to have a go at Apple with a tablet device. Everyone else is just wasting time and money. As someone else said, by the time anyone fields any actual device Apple will be on generation 2 or 3 of the iPad with 200,000 apps in the wild delivered through a juggernaut distribution platform. As usual, the first guy to market becomes very hard to displace.

The first guy to get the key areas right, you mean. ;-)
The iPad, like the iPhone and iPod before it, wasn't the first in it's respective category, but they nailed key primary areas out of the gate, which leads to both market & mindshare.

 

[spammerhamster]

Based on specs and promises, they can be competitors. But experience has taught me to wait till those Killers comes Alice and gets reviewed first. At this moment, only apple had lived up to their promises.

 

[aneftp]

Apple has basically killed off its competition with the iPad.

Look the HP Slate was announced a couple of weeks before the iPad. Than the ipad was announced. HP knows it had it's work cut out for them especially when Apple announced the $500 16GB ipad wifi model. HP and the other competitors were hoping Apple would be priced much higher and than people would buy the competition at the lower $400-500 prices.

Of course, the other issue is stability. Microsoft's Windows 7 is probably not that stable for slate computing. I agree Google Andoird or Chrome will be a viable alternative.

But again, the competition is so far behind. They saw what the iPad could do. Either they had something in the works, but when the iPad was announced, they had to go back to the drawing board.

Research and Development in the tech world for brand new products take at least 2 years. Look at the iPhone. It was announced in Jan 2007. Where was the competition. Google made beta users out of the first G1 buyers with Tmobile in Oct 2008. Google's Android system really wasn't stable until version 1.5/1.6. By than it's more than 2 years after the original iphone launch. Same thing with the Palm WebOS. It wasn't announced until after 2 years after the iPhone launch.

The competition is so far behind Apple at this point in development with the ipad. Sure it will eventually catch up. But how big of a lead with the iPad have by than.

In my opinion, a real competitor to the iPad won't be seen until at least 18-24 months from now (mainly because Google can use their preexisting Android OS or HP with the Palm WebOS).

That's why there's no competition right now. They are all back to the drawing board trying to design something that can undercut Apple's prices and still maintain healthy profit margins. At this point, it's not worth the risk to these companies. They are just letting Apple blaze a trail. The lead might be too big to overcome (see Sony Walkman vs. Apple iPod for historical perpective); and yes I know Apple wasn't the first MP3 player (I actually had one of the very first, the RIO Diamond MP3 player). Apple isn't the first with the tablet/slate but they are the first to successfully mass market it.

 

[frank.deale]

This competitor looks interesting:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,197622/article.html

 

[Spudracer]

The first guy to get the key areas right, you mean. ;-)
The iPad, like the iPhone and iPod before it, wasn't the first in it's respective category, but they nailed key primary areas out of the gate, which leads to both market & mindshare.

Yeah, I discount (heavily) the ten years of WinIdiot tablet failures. An arrow that completely misses the target may as well stay in the quiver. Apple may not have scored a perfect bullseye but they hit the target squarely on the first shot with every arrow. Distribution platform, OS, developers, publishers, hardware, interface, content, etc. They have 100% market share and 110% mindshare at this point. It will take an epic achievement to knock them off their perch now and there really is no one but Google up to the task.