Apple has become a world leader in a new category which they introduced in early 2010 and now the company feels that tablet computers could certainly outshine the PC market. Of-course tablets existed much before the iPad was launched but, the “tablet” category wasn’t taken very seriously until Apple unveiled its first gen iPad.
In 2011 we’ve already witnessed all major players in the smartphone industry catching up with Apple by introducing their own version of tablets. Even though many tablets introduced this year have struggled to match iPads sales it’s certainly worth noting that Samsung has emerged to be one of the key players to watch out for.
In a recent interview with Goldman Sachs analyst Bill Shope Apple’s COO Tim Cook said, “he sees no reason why the tablet market shouldn’t eclipse the PC market over the next several years,”.
We’ve heard Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs share similar thoughts during D8 when he compared the PC market to trucks and tablets to cars and said that eventually cars replaced the trucks.
I use my iPad 2 everyday and it’s clearly very efficient at doing some key tasks while on the other hand for more heavy duty tasks I still go back to my Mac. The iPad has certainly reduced the amount of time I used to spend with the Mac. When Apple introduced the iPad Jobs very clearly explained that the tablet would not necessarily replace laptops or smartphones but, it would make accomplishing certain tasks more enjoyable and intuitive.
It’s important to note that the tablet market is probably evolving much faster than any other consumer product. As the mobile technology matures further we could be seeing much more powerful devices in near future.
So, is Tim Cook referring to “iPad 2″ when he talked about tablet market outselling PC market? No! The current gen iPad is great but it would require a few more years and some more innovation to reach there.
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