A lot of talk about iPad competitors
Posted by Mauricio Longo in General on May 12th, 2010 | 1 comment
Time is ticking for Apple’s competitors. The iPad is going international this month and continues to sell like hot cakes in the United States. As no one was really ready for how Apple would take the market by storm with the iPad, everyone is scrambling to have a product that can be pitched to the demand that is being created by all the news and discussions about the iPad and the future of tablet computing devices.
In a recent investors event, Intel Vice President Mooly Eden was seen waving around a tablet device based on Intel technology. While it seems that Mr. Eden avoided referencing the iPad by name there could be little question about what prompted this line of discussion in an investor’s event. Were I an investor in the company, I would be interested in knowing what Intel plans to do to enter this market.
Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless said this Tuesday that it is working with Google on a new tablet to compete with the iPad, adding to the ranks already joined by Dell and Toshiba who are also working on tablets that will run Google’s Android.
In rumorland a new code name for an HP tablet running Palm’s webOS has surfaced: Hurricane. It would seem that this would be the successor to the Slate that HP showed at the start of the year, in the hands of Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer, before deciding that Windows 7 wouldn’t cut it against the iPad an canning the project in favor of the Palm acquisition and the mobile OS it brings.
When the first devices start to actually come out it will be interesting to observe who buys them and in what quantities, to see which, if any, pose a challenge to the iPad. Personally I believe that it will take the collective sales of several manufacturers to compare with Apple’s success in the market as in the realm of music players, though I don’t expect Apple to sustain as much market share with the iPad as it has with the iPod.
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There are a few things to look at here:
(1) HP (in my opinion) will still come out with the SLATE running Windows 7. Up until 3 weeks ago they were still coming out with reports and updates about the SLATE. They have lots of money and time invested in the SLATE and probably will try to recoup some of that.
(2) There is rumor that HP is also making a smaller version (6 inch) of the SLATE nick named the HALF-PINT. This is rumored to be running Android OS. It’s possible that it could be swapped to run WebOS.
(3) We have the rumor of the HP HURRICANE to be released in Q3. This is rumored to be running WebOS instead of the Windows 7.
I think that HP will decide to do all 3. The reasons being are that they have lots of money and time invested in the SLATE and they realize they need something on the market as soon as possible. This will help them recoup some of the money invested. It will also help bring in some of the people out there who want a FULL OPPERATING SYSTEM and not a phone based OS.
They probably see a need to bring a smaller more portable version to the market (but not to be mistaken for a phone…. hence the HP HALF-PINT). If this is running WebOS, this will be two fold. (1) it will bring a phone operating system to market for HP and more importantly (2) this will give WebOS a few months to have the APPs developed before the HP HURRICANE is released onto the market.
At that time HP will have a full version, fully integrated SLATE type device on market that will be able to compete with the iPad for market share.
As of now, iPad is ahead of the game with the iPhone OS only in the APPs department. HP needs some time to develop and test the HURRICANE. HP also needs to get something on the market as soon as possible at the same time trying to recoup some of the money that was invested in the SLATE.
This is why I think that HP will do all three.
HP SLATE
HP HALF-PINT
HP HURRICANE