ABI: Android tablets have eroded 20 pct of iPad share

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Adobe CEO: Apple Feud Over, Android Will Overtake iPad

Apple's mighty iPad will eventually be unseated from its reign as the dominant tablet by devices running on Android, Adobe Systems CEO Shantanu Nayaren said Thursday in a conversation with Walt Mossberg at the D9 Conference in Palos Verdes, Ca.

"What you saw with smartphones hitting an inflection point with Android, you'll see it again with tablets," he said. "There will be another 20 tablets that will come by the end of the year that will push the industry in different directions."

Nayaren also said that the feud between Adobe and Apple over running Flash on iOS devices is over. Flash famously doesn't run on iOS and last year Apple CEO Steve Jobs called Nayaren's company out, saying that Flash hasn't "performed well on mobile devices." Nayaren shot back, blaming Apple for Flash's difficulties. On Thursday, Nayaren contended that the public skirmish has been squashed, and it wasn't essentially about the software.

"It's a business model issue, and it's about control of a platform," he said. "It's control over the App Store that's at issue here. We allow people to author once and get as wide a distribution as possible… if you build in Flash, you can run the apps on other platforms."

Nayaren boasted that there will be 130 million phones running Flash by the end of the year. But Mossberg contended that he had "yet to see a single [phone] where Flash works really well."

While the Adobe CEO asserted that "Flash is a really small part of the company," he said he's thrilled to be working with the software on non-iPad tablets, likening himself to "a kid in a candy shop."

"I think the community is vibrant," he said. "I'm really excited."

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iPad's Web Browsing Share 53 Times Greater Than Top Android Tablets

The iPad now accounts for nearly 1% of all Web browsing, which may not sound like a lot until you look at the numbers for Apple's closest competitors.

The iPad conducts 0.92% of Web browsing, but the Android-based Samsung Galaxy Tab clocks in at a meager 0.018%, the Motorola Xoom at 0.012%, and the BlackBerry Playbook at 0.003%.

COMPETITION: Samsung latest Galaxy Tab sleeker than the Xoom, still no iPad

"In other words, the iPad has 53 times the usage share of its nearest competitor," says Net Applications, which estimates browser and operating system usage by tracking a global network of more than 40,000 websites.

Overall, Apple's iOS - which is used on the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch - accounts for 2.38% of all Web-connected devices, in third place behind Windows' 88.69% and Mac's 5.32%.

All Android devices combined, including tablets and phones, total 0.76%, which is less than Linux desktops and the Java ME platform for mobile devices and embedded systems.

No one set of numbers can be seen as definitive, of course. Recent sales show Android phones matching or surpassing the iPhone. And StatCounter, another tracking organization, shows a relatively small gap between iOS and Android usage. In May, iOS accounted for 22.09% of mobile operating system usage, compared to Android's 17.63%, according to Statcounter. Both were behind Symbian's 31.36%.

Net Applications' latest market share report also shows desktop browser trends. Microsoft's Internet Explorer continued its slide, dropping from 55.11% usage in April to 54.27% in May. Firefox improved slightly from 21.63% to 21.71%, and Google's Chrome jumped from 11.94% to 12.52%. Safari and Opera account for less than 10% of Web browsing usage combined.

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Nvidia CEO: Android tablets could outsell iPad in 3 years

Android tablets could outsell Apple's iPad in less than three years, says Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, according to Reuters.

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang

(Credit: Nvidia)

Speaking at the Reuters Technology Summit in New York on Monday, the outspoken CEO noted that it took Android smartphones less than three years to outpace the iPhone.

"The Android phone took only two and a half years to achieve the momentum that we're talking about," Huang said at the summit. "I would expect the same thing on Honeycomb tablets."

With Nvidia supplying the Tegra 2 processor that powers many Android tablets, Huang has been both a cheerleader and sometime critic of Google's mobile OS and the devices that it powers.

To outpace Apple's popular iPad--the company said in March that it had sold 15 million iPads to that point, and accounted for 90 percent of the tablet market--the Android ecosystem will need to see improved tablet models and more mobile apps. Huang believes that will happen as the Honeycomb version of Android catches on and developers create more games and other apps to take advantage of the latest version of Android.

There also need to be improvements in Android tablets' retail presence, Huang told CNET blogger Brooke Crothers last week. "It's a point of sales problem. It's an expertise at retail problem. It's a marketing problem to consumers. It is a price point problem," Huang said.

Related links
‧ IDC: 46 million media tablets by 2014
‧ Android.next: Honeycomb 3.1 now, Ice Cream Sandwich later
‧ Yes, tablets are hurting PC sales...kind of
‧ Chromebook, Netbook, iPad: Which would you rather spend $500 on?

Huang admits that the first round of Android tablets were hampered by technical issues and a lack of marketing, prompting consumers to complain about prices and performance. He's especially pointed out the limitations of the Android versions prior to Honeycomb as they were designed for phones rather than tablets.

"You can't just do another product," Huang told CNET in an interview last November. "Look at the Samsung Galaxy Tab. It's a tablet that uses a phone operating system on a large display. A tablet is not a large phone."

However, his opinion of the second wave of tablets has been much more upbeat--he sees the newer devices as more affordable, more available, and more diverse. He's also more optimistic about Android with the release of Honeycomb, the first version optimized specifically for tablets.

Huang's upbeat expectation for Android tablets overtaking iPads has been echoed by Michael Dell. The CEO and founder of PC maker Dell, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal last month, used the same smartphone reference point. "If you look at 18 months ago, Android phones were like, 'What is that?' And now there are more Android phones than iPhones," Dell said.

As with any new product, initial kinks always need to be worked out and "the first versions tend to be a bit clumsy to roll out," Huang said, according to Reuters. That statement holds true even for Honeycomb 3.0, which he admits has certain shortcomings that everyone was aware of. But he seems happy so far with the follow-up version of Honeycomb 3.1, which he dubbed "delightful."

Nvidia is also ready to push the envelope of Android tablets with the upcoming release of its Kal-El mobile processor. Christened with Superman's birth name, the new chip will offer a quad-core processor and higher-resolution graphics, promising five times the performance of Nvidia's current Tegra 2 chip.

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iPad Who? Five Publishers Join Forces to Offer Magazine Subscriptions on Android

Apple has begun to win over magazine publishers, a handful of which have started to offer subscriptions to their publications on the iPad. But publishers aren't solely focused on iOS, and five of them have teamed up in a consortium called Next Issue Media to peddle magazines on tablets running on Google's Android platform.

The digital newsstand, which All Things D's Peter Kafka refers to as the "Hulu for magazines," comprises Time, Inc., Hearst, Conde Nast, Meredith, and News Corp. Called an "early preview," this initial offering allows readers to either subscribe or buy single issues to Fortune and Time from Time, Inc.; the New Yorker from Conde Nast; Fitness and Parents from Meredith; and Esquire and Popular Mechanics from Hearst. News Corp doesn't publish any magazines, but in February, when the company launched its iPad-exclusive newspaper, The Daily, CEO Rupert Murdoch hinted that the publication would eventually be available on other platforms, so it's possible that it would be sold through Next Issue in the future.

For now, Next Issue Media is only available on the Samsung Galaxy Tab, but CEO Morgan Guenther told Kafka that the service will be offered on additional devices by the end of the year. Guenther also said the company will have a webOS app and will be selling at least 40 magazines within that same time frame.

Publishers have much more control over the sale of their titles through Next Issue Media than they do through Apple's App Store. Not only do they get to set the price, but Guenther said they will get "at least" 70 percent of sales, with the remaining 30 percent split between device makers and the collective. It's an advantage of this new platform, considering the iPad model allows publishers 70 percent of revenue, with Apple keeping 30 percent for itself.

Perhaps most importantly, Next Issue Media gives publishers full access to subscribers' personal data, including their credit card information. By contrast, on the iPad, opportunities for publishers to get this kind of information are scant at best.

Hearst and Conde Nastwere the first publishers to announce plans to offer iPad magazine subscriptions, nearly three months after Apple unveiled the subscription plan. Publishers were reluctant to jump on board; most felt that Apple's terms weren't in their favor.

It hasn't been confirmed, but it's rumored that Hearst and Conde were able to get Apple to budge slightly on the terms. While Apple still controls most of subscribers' information, Conde Nast is permitted to get their names, email addresses, and Zip codes. Publishers also now have two opportunities to get a reader's email, first on the opt-in screen and later on a page that asks for email addresses in order to access exclusive content.

The concession might be small, but it seems to be working out for publishers, with 50 percent of readers opting to share their information with publishers.

Time, Inc. is the last of the top three publishers holding out on iOS. It recently announced that iPad versions of Time, Sports Illustrated, and Fortune are now free on the iPad to print subscribers, but it has made no indication that it will offer standalone iPad subscriptions any time soon.

Next Issue Media will also give existing print subscribers access to the digital editions for some of its magazines, but it doesn't yet have an option for digital/print bundles for new subscribers.

Subscriptions through Next Issue range in price from $1.99-$5.99 a month and from $2.99-$4.99 per issue.

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Dell: Android tablets will outshine iPad, eventually

 Michael Dell

(Credit: Dell)

Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell believes Android tablets will eventually overtake Apple's iPad as the dominant force in the slate market, according to an interview published today in The Wall Street Journal.

"Not tomorrow. Not the next day. But again, if you look at 18 months ago, Android phones were like, 'What is that?' And now there are more Android phones than iPhones," Dell said in response to a question on the possibility of Android tablets beating iPad sales. "I don't see any reason why the same won't occur with Android tablets."

Admittedly, Dell has a vested interest in seeing that happen. His company currently offers both 5- and 7-inch Android tablets, known as the Streak. He also pointed out in the interview that Dell will continue to double down on Android.

Of course, Dell didn't say exactly when the shift might occur in tablet market dominance. Right now, Apple's iPad is easily overshadowing the competition. According to research firm IDC, Apple owned 83 percent of the tablet market last year, and IDC expects the company to control between 70 and 80 percent of the tablet market this year.

That further evidences the trouble Android is having establishing a beachhead in the tablet market. The Motorola Xoom, which launched in late February, has been gathering dust on store shelves. Deutsche Bank said recently that only 100,000 units of the device have been sold so far.

It's a similar story for the Samsung Galaxy Tab, which launched last year. Samsung said earlier this year that it shipped 2 million units of its tablet worldwide, but it acknowledged in an earnings call with investors in January that the "sell-out wasn't as fast as we expected."

Even so, tablets are catching on in a big way. IDC said earlier this year that it expects 50 million tablets to ship in 2011 alone.

For his part, Dell acknowledged that the uptick in demand for tablets over the past year has been somewhat surprising.

"I'd say [the] rapid rise of the tablet," Dell said in response to the Journal's question on what has surprised him most over the past several years. "I didn't completely see that coming."

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Android Tablets Undercutting IPad Prices

In an effort to attract buyers away from Apple's iPad, device makers are setting starting prices of Android tablets to undercut iPad's US$499 entry-level price.

The starting prices for tablets with 10.1-inch screens from ViewSonic, Asustek and Acer range from $279 to $449. The tablets run different versions of Google's Android OS, include 10.1-inch displays, run on dual-core ARM processors and are Flash-capable.

Apple first shipped the iPad in April last year, and set the tone for the market with its aggressive starting price. The first Android tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab that starting shipping later in the year were overpriced, and the low pricing of new tablets could be a market correction, said Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates.

A ViewSonic GTablet, originally priced at $499, is now available on Amazon.com for $279.99. Acer's Iconia A500 Tab is priced starting at $449 and will ship later this month. The starting price for Asus' upcoming Eee Pad Transformer was listed at $399.99 on Best Buy's website, but the page has now been removed.

According to an IDC survey, 10.1 million media tablets shipped during the fourth quarter of 2010, of which Apple's iPad had a 73 percent market share. In second place was Samsung's Galaxy Tab, with 17 percent market share, while "regional players" captured the rest of the market.

Apple dominates the tablet market because of iPad's aggressive pricing, design and features, Kay said. By comparison, high prices and lack of a cohesive software stack have made Android tablets relatively less attractive to buyers.

"The Android system lacks the total ecosystem and unification that Apple has," Kay said.

Samsung's Galaxy Tab, which comes with a 7-inch screen, originally went on sale late last year through Verizon starting at $600 without a contract and was considered overpriced. Earlier this month, Verizon cut the starting price of Galaxy Tab to $500.

But not all Android tablet vendors have changed their pricing strategy. Motorola continues to offer its Xoom tablet from $599. Buyers can acquire Android tablets from wireless carriers for low prices, but typically have to sign a two-year mobile service agreement.

Buyers typically have a short attention span and could reconsider feature-rich Android tablets at lower prices, Kay said. But it remains to be seen if Android tablets will shake the iPad's market dominance.

Apple in March started shipping the iPad 2. There is currently a two- to three-week waiting period for iPad 2 online orders.

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Tablets, ePad, aPad and Android Operating System

After the reign of desktop computers for many years came the portable version of it in the form of laptops. Convenient, easy and familiar, and as portable as a briefcase, these computers were instantly popular and are here to stay, in spite of the new super lightweight technologies that have come on the market since.

The ancient writing tablets bequeathed their name on a tiny, highly portable version of computer technology, which has taken the world by storm. We are talking about the 'tablet', short for 'tablet computer' or 'tablet PC'. The whole computer is contained in a thin, book-sized screen that can lie on your lap or on a table, like a book, completely inconspicuous, even in public. It has a 'touch screen' with icons and pictures, instead of a mouse or a keyboard. Information is fed in by means of a finger, a digital pen or a stylus. If a keyboard should be necessary, a virtual keyboard can be selected to appear on the screen itself. Some models have a USB port too in order to accommodate a device like flash player, or keyboard, or mouse if required for some reason.

Another huge step forward in progress was made when the iPhone came into being and the internet and telephone communication began to be integrated.

When the Apple iPad was launched it created a sensation. As it always happens, the world's wizkids couldn't get to their drawing boards fast enough to try and compete and improve and get their share of the market. As a result a large variety of tablets and pads have come onto the market, revolutionising portability and convenience of information transfer.

The ePad:

This is an Android tablet, inspired by iPad, and is a Chinese contribution to the market. It has 2GB storage capacity and a 10 inch touch screen.

The aPad:

This is so like the iPad that it is sometimes referred to as a 'clone'

The iRobot is considered by many to be the most successful of the aPad devices. It has a 7 inch touch screen and has resolution of 800x480 pixels and 16:9 aspect ratios. aPads with 10 inch screens are also available. It uses Android OS.

Android is an operating system that is proving popular and innovative with regular updates that are named after well-known menu dessert foods, such as 'cupcake', 'eclair', etc. These updates fix old bugs and provide interesting new features. Android distribution was unveiled at the end of 2007. It was specially designed for cell phones, tablet computers and netbooks. It was developed by Google and is currently the 2nd ranked operating system for handheld computer pads in the US. Android OS is open to sharing plugins, applications and add-ons and whatever else is developed. This feature is making it very popular and competitive. The operating system doesn't restrict the use of extra amenities, such as keyboards, flash drives, etc that need to plug into a USB port. A very popular element is that it is highly customisable to individual needs.

For ePad and aPad Android tablets
Contact http://www.tabletbazaar.com