Are Consumers Getting Tired of Tablet Computers?

Posted by Kirhat | Monday, July 28, 2014 | | 0 comments »

Tablet Computers
This blog showed earlier that Apple iPad sales have begun to slow, with the company announcing unit sales had fallen more than 9 percent in the quarter following a 16 percent decline in the previous quarter.

Back in 2012, Apple was proudly announcing quarterly sales jumps of nearly 85 percent. Rival Microsoft has been spending millions to push its Surface Pro tablet/PC with moderate success, and Google Android tablets are selling but they're getting less expensive every day further shrinking razor-thin profits.

Does the trend clearly show the beginning of the end for tablet computers?

"The sales cycle of iPad remained in negative territory during the June quarter as the tablet market has shown signs of softening," Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian White said in a research note. "Apple reported iPad units of 13.3 million but better than our 11.5 million projection. Apple indicated iPad unit sales met the company's expectations but was below analyst estimates."

Reached by phone, White said the tablet market "has hit a wall for sure." Unlike consumers buying new model smartphones every two years White noted that iPads have been around for only four years and questioned "how often do users really need to upgrade their tablets?"

Microsoft Surface devices have struggled from the day the products were announced. Even now in their third-generation, they're still struggling. Surface devices were introduced running what was then considered as brand new, completely overhauled and somewhat confusing Windows 8 operating systems. It forced Windows users to deal with two different home screens but without the familiar Windows Home button, on top of the confusion between Windows and Windows RT.

Windows RT was designed to bring Windows, in some form, to battery-friendly ARM-based systems-on-a-chip devices. In reality, Windows RT turned out to be a somewhat crippled version of the full OS. Windows RT devices could do nearly everything a full Windows 8 computer could do except for allow users to download/install/use third-party applications. It never came close to being able to compete with iPads on any level.

Thankfully, after being buried in its quarterly income statement report , Microsoft announced that it would not be releasing a third-generation Windows RT device called the Surface Mini. The Mini project had been snuffed shortly before the company announced its Surface Pro 3 device a few weeks ago. At the time Microsoft said the devices had been delayed.

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