∞ Apple has no competition from PC-based tablet makers

Written by

It’s interesting to watch the PC industry play catch-up with Apple’s iPad and make no mistake, that’s exactly what’s happening. The PC tablet has been out for some time, but they didn’t bring anything new to the game and they still don’t.

Apple on the other hand innovated how we think about a tablet computer. It’s lightweight, has a virtual keyboard, can handle many different types of media and organizes our lives. All with a 10-inch touchscreen.

Tradition PC companies are scared to do the things that Apple does. It seems the goal for them is to include as much backward compatibility as possible, but still try to innovate and have a tablet.

You can’t do both. Windows is a perfect example of how this strategy fails.

While Apple will tell consumers and developers, they will no longer support an operating system, PC companies try to support products for as far back as they possibly can. That severely limits how far and how quickly you can move forward.

The most recent iPad competitor comes from LG with the following specs:

Boasting a 10.1-inch LED capacity touchscreen, the UX10 was one of the most solid tablets we’ve had the opportunity to touch. The prototype on the floor was equipped with an Intel Atom Z530 processor, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium, a 1.3 megapixel front-facing webcam, an SD card slot, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, a 7200mAh battery and a micro-HDMI output.

Unless I’m mistaken, that’s a netbook with a touchscreen. We already know that netbooks are not the future. They weren’t even the future when people thought they were the future.

Netbooks showed those that were paying attention that the market was hungry for a small device. Something they could use for work and play, but something that was very portable.

The netbook over-promised and under-delivered in all facets of what consumers were looking for. The iPad seems to have hit the mark perfectly, selling two million devices in under 60 days.

The biggest iPad competitor is the next iPad. It’s really that simple. Until other companies are willing to innovate instead of following the same tired path they did with PCs, Apple will run away with the market.


  • Michael

    Apple continues to be the industry's R & D. The PC folks will never "get it."

  • http://twitter.com/franckhertz @franckhertz

    It'll take an Android or WebOS based device to make any headway against the iPad. And it's a moving target as no doubt updates to the Os are coming, plus newer and more innovative apps. Amazes me anyone still thinks windows is going to work as a tablet OS.

  • http://twitter.com/fredvasse @fredvasse

    Spot on!. It's the same story for every segment when Apple comes in and starts to innovate it. Steve Jobs is right when telling us the era of the PC is ending. Only they don't realize it yet…

  • Grapho

    This brings in to question Google Chrome OS, how much of it has been design with tough in mind. If it's only relegated to Netbooks, then it will not be the game changing OS the press media seems to expect.

  • http://twitter.com/ARMORinfo @ARMORinfo

    The Apple may be many things, but it's not rugged. There will always be a place for rugged tablets.

  • Robb

    All the PC fanboys and Apple doubters I know keep saying, "Oh wait until eePad comes out or WePad hits the market and iPad will fall by the side." As far as I can tell these tablets are all just vaporware. They had made announcements with few details or not much transparency. Some say they will run Windows (although HP and others have found that there isn't a viable, stable, and competitive Windows OS to iPad) others have been touting Andriod but there too Google has yet to produce an tablet based OS that is viable.

    This usually happens when a new product like iPod, iPhone or iPad hit the market. During the initial surge in sales and large scale consumer acceptance, companies who perceive themselves to be competitors (although in many cases they are not suitable competitors because they don't have the marketing, retail, distribution and technology infrastructure) jump out with product announcements for products they don't have, haven't designed, haven't tested, and aren't anywhere near to manufacturing. We keep finding this to be true daily – this vaporware screen keeps falling down and we see the wizards hiding behind blue smoke and mirrors.

  • dale

    As of this moment, there is NO competition to the iPad. Everything else is just either a dire dire product or vapourware.

    Because the iPad was designed from the inside out to be used as a touch device, it just works, and its works so so well.

    Would i ever buy another Windows based touch device, hell no!

  • vsp

    The PC and Android world are plagued with a disease known as feature-itis, which is to bloat a product with unnecessary features that do not work properly in order to up the competition. Accompanying this is another blight known as copycat-itis, which is a compulsive behavior to imitate a competitor's product as closely as possible.