Microsoft claims they want to build more hardware, but they and Apple may be headed in the wrong direction.
The tablet market is poised to double its current numbers by 2016, primarily due to declining PC sales, but according to one report Microsoft doesn’t have too much to look forward to and according to a second report Apple’s near future may not be to bright either.
According to a Bloomberg report,”Microsoft, which has been battered by the PC slump, introduced its Surface tablet earlier this year. Surface and other hand-held machines running Microsoft’s Windows operating system will command more than 10 percent of the market by 2016, IDC said today. This year, Microsoft’s share is 2.9 percent.” And according to another report IDC says that, “Apple’s worldwide tablet market share would slip to 53.8 percent in 2012 from 56.3 percent in 2011, while Android products would increase their share to 42.7 percent from 39.8 percent, IDC said.”
The combination of reports means one thing though; Android is expected dominate the tablet market in 2013, and quite possibly well beyond because the price of today’s tablets is now a real selling point.
When Amazon came out with the Kindle Fire and its crica $200 price tag, Google soon followed suit and came out with the Nexus 7, a tablet which many feel is very sufficient in hardware specs and does its job equally as well as the premium priced Apple iPad.
Google is a fierce competitor. Not only did they create the Nexus 7, but it’s said that they sell it nearly at cost. Asus is expected to end 2012 with more than 6 million shipments of the Nexus 7, and that’s just Google flagship Android product. There are many more Androids made by many vendors. Apple really can’t compete. At least not in the way they have been.
Apple puts together cutting edge hardware, with a nice solid OS as well I must add. There’s no question about that. Cutting edge hardware has its cost though and cost is something that more and more customers are looking to cut as tablets become more and more common, with similar features and near equal ability to accomplish similar tasks.
Google make money on free services, and they make a lot of it. The more people they can get to use the Internet, the more money they make. Whether it’s on Google’s own Nexus 7, a Samsung Galaxy, an Apple iPad or any other device. This is why its in Google’s best interest to get Android to as many people as they can, on as many devices as possible. Apple on the other hand makes tons of profit per product sale. They have a services market of course, but not even close to something lie even Google’s AdSense model where every Internet user is almost a certain customer of sort.
So what’s one of the best way get more people to use the Internet? Put tablets or any other computing device in their hands as cheaply as possible, and drive them straight to you through th OS. Welcome, Android; the future of tablets in 2013 and possibly beyond.