Amazon, maker of the popular Kindle electronic book reader, is entering a fast-growing tablet computer market dominated by Apple’s iPad but featuring dozens of other competitors.
Here are some of the hits and misses of the tablet industry:
Apple iPad: The latest creation from Steve Jobs was launched with the usual Apple flair in April of last year, spawning a new category of devices and a host of imitators. Apple has sold nearly 30 million iPads and it accounted for 80 per cent of the 7.5 million tablet shipments in North America in the second quarter of this year, according to Strategy Analytics. The iPad features a 9.7-inch (24.6-centimeter) screen and the latest model, the iPad 2, which hit stores in March, boasts still and video cameras. It sells for $499 to $829 depending on memory size and whether a buyer chooses Wi-Fi or 3G connectivity. The iPad is also backed by Apple’s online entertainment store iTunes and more than 100,000 free and paid applications in the App Store.
Amazon Kindle Fire: The latest entrant in the tablet market is the Kindle Fire from US online retail giant Amazon. It costs just $199 and will be available in November. It features a seven-inch (17.78-cm) screen and is powered by Google’s Android software. The Kindle Fire does not have a camera or 3G connectivity, only Wi-Fi. It comes with a pre-installed shopping application as Amazon seeks to drive Kindle Fire buyers to its online store, which features books, music, movies, TV shows and games.
Hewlett-Packard Touchpad: One of the biggest tablet flops. HP’s TouchPad went on sale on July 1 with much fanfare but was discontinued by the world’s top personal computer maker just seven weeks later because of poor sales. The TouchPad, ironically, has been flying off the shelves since HP announced on August 18 that it was pulling the plug on the device and slashing the price for the most basic model from $399 to $99. HP announced one last production run because of the strong demand. The TouchPad is powered by the webOS mobile operating system HP acquired in its purchase of Palm last year for $1.2 billion.
Samsung Galaxy Tab: Touted by some in the industry as an “iPad killer” when it came out a year ago, the Samsung Galaxy Tab has not lived up to its billing. Samsung’s first tablet was a seven-inch (17.78-cm) model and the South Korean manufacturer has since come out with a 10.1-inch (25.6-cm) version powered by Honeycomb, the latest version of Google’s Android software. Unlike the iPad, the Galaxy Tab can run Flash video. The Galaxy Tab is also the subject of a bitter patent dispute between Samsung and Apple which has led to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 being banned in Germany and under assault in courtrooms in Australia.
Blackberry Playbook: The PlayBook from Canada’s Research In Motion made its debut on April 19 to desultory reviews and sales have been sluggish with RIM shipping just 200,000 of the devices last quarter. RIM has been marketing the PlayBook as the first “professional-grade” tablet, stressing its integration with the BlackBerry smartphone, a favourite among many business users. BlackBerry owners can pair their handset with the PlayBook using a Bluetooth connection, a feature called BlackBerry Bridge, to view their e-mail, calendar, contacts or other content.
Motorola Xoom: The Motorola Xoom from Motorola Mobility was crowned the best gadget at the Consumer Electronics Show in January and went on sale in February. It was the first tablet computer on the market powered by the Honeycomb software crafted specifically for tablets by Google. With a 10.1-inch (25.6-cm) screen, the Xoom is about the same size as the iPad and also hosts front- and rear-facing still and video cameras. The Xoom was seen as overpriced when it hit the market at $800, but Motorola Mobility has cut the price since then. Motorola Mobility, which was acquired by Google in August for $12.5 billion, said it shipped 440,000 Xoom tablets last quarter and expects to ship between 1.3 million and 1.5 million for the full year.
Sony S/P: The Japanese electronics giant arrived surprisingly late to the tablet market and only began selling its first device this month, the Sony Tablet S. The Android-based tablet features a 9.4-inch (23.8-cm) touchscreen and costs between $499 and $599. It currently only comes with Wi-Fi connectivity but Sony has promised a Wi-Fi/3G model in November.
Archos 9: The Archos 9 PC Tablet was an early entrant in the tablet computer market and among the first to run Microsoft’s Windows operating system, which has found few adopters among tablet makers so far. The Archos 9 features an 8.9-inch (22-cm) screen and was priced at $550 at launch.
The Archos 9 was powered by Windows 7, which was designed for personal computers and not for tablets. Microsoft has said that Windows 8 will be optimized for tablets.