The consumer market is currently driving surging demand for tablet PCs, but the situation is about to change as enterprises, including manufacturers and services providers, increasingly adopt the device. As tablets go mainstream in schools and businesses, an intense fight for market share is brewing, and I expect many of the current suppliers will lose out to the handful of companies that have established instant name recognition in the segment.
In coming years, tablet PCs will be showing up in many segments of the economy: the financial services industry is already using it and so are realtors, retailers, restaurants, schools, manufacturers, etc. Tablets are replacing books and laptops in cockpits, in police patrol vehicles, on manufacturing floors, and in students' school bags. The adoption rate is so high, tablet shipment could be as high as for wireless handsets.
Of course, Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) already has a significant head-start. In fact, Apple's lead is so enormous that its iPad is beginning to be seen as the generic brand name for the device, much as Aspirin, invented by Bayer, has become the industry nomenclature for the pain killer. When people talk nowadays about tablets, the visual image that comes to many minds -- at least in the consumer market -- is that of the iPad. Rivals are trying hard to combat this, knowing full well that the longer the iPad is associated with the line of product, the harder it will be for their offerings to gain market acceptance.
There's hope for them. Even though Apple currently controls a more than 70 percent market share in the sector, this is expected to decline slowly in coming quarters as products from companies like Motorola Mobility Inc. (NYSE: MMI) and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Korea: SEC) gain greater acceptance. In the enterprise sector, companies like Dell Inc. , which is actively promoting its product to businesses, will likely penetrate in the manufacturing sector, an area where functionality, pricing, and durability might be more important than the design elegance so critical to winning in the consumer market.
Apple is not absent in the enterprise market, though. In fact, the company is currently one of the strongest players in the market as Timothy Cook, Apple's CEO, pointed out during the company's recent quarterly conference call with analysts. The statistics cited by Cook clearly show how big the tablet market is likely to become in coming years. Shipment of tablets might even exceed the sale of traditional notebook and desktop computers, according to some reports. Here's an excerpt from Cook's statement:
It's been just 18 months since we introduced iPad and the pace at which businesses worldwide are adopting this technology is unprecedented. Today, 92 percent of the Fortune 500 are testing or deploying iPad within their enterprises, up from 86 percent last year. Internationally, 52 percent of the Global 500 are testing or deploying iPad, up from 47 percent last quarter.
Every day, we learn about innovative new ways our enterprise customers are using iPad. The airline industry is a great example of the momentum we're seeing. United Continental Holdings is putting iPads in every cockpit to replace heavy, paper-based flight bags. In Japan, All Nippon Airways is now using iPad in training programs for flight attendants. Sonic Automotive is using iPad for customer check-in at the service department and also to provide analytics to regional managers. Aflac, Biogen and General Mills have developed internal apps that their field sales teams leverage daily, and technicians of Siemens Energy are bringing iPads along when they do maintenance work at the top of their wind turbines.
@Anne, You are right on the fact that sales of Laptops will drastically reduced but i also feel that this might cause a kind of revolution in the world of PC if PC still want to remain relevant to this age
Tablets are not desktop or laptop replacements. They are different devices for different uses and they serve very well depending on the needs of the user.
I don't understand what you mean by saying "the quality of work may not be so rich." How do you think your the quality of your work can change by using a tablet?
I would say the quality of your work depends only on you and not on the device you are using, this given that you are using the right device for the type of work you do.
iPads' restrictions on third-party software may pose a barrier for their deployment in the enterprise. The "Wow" factor, though, may lead companies to get over this barrier.
Certain companies do use Macs on their networks, and the iPad OS has the Mac OS, which is closely related to Unix, as its core. The restrictive nature of what s/w can be installed on the device makes it particularly effective against exploits. Malware attacks have been reported where app's were installed circumventing Apple's authorization framework however.
As tablet PCs become more prevalent, the relative proportion of laptops sold will gradually decline. Thus the potential to take a considerable portion of the enterprise market share is feasible, and to gain market share is also noteworthy. This is not to say that tablets will replace laptops entirely; instead they will add value to the existing technology infrastructure.
By moving to the core of the industry and offerings services that keep the system humming, a group within the electronics market has rendered irrelevant the question of ownership and control of the supply chain.
EBN Dialogue enables and encourages you to participate in live chats with notable leaders and luminaries. Not only editors and journalists, but the entire EBN community is able to comment and ask questions. Listed below are upcoming and archived chats.
Archived Dialogues
Thailand Stages a Comeback Join EBN contributor Jennifer Baljko on Thursday August 23, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. EST for a live chat on how electronic manufacturers in Thailand have shored up their supply chain to reduce the impact of future natural disasters.
Euro-Crisis: What It Means for High-Tech Firms Join EBN Editor in Chief Bolaji Ojo and Contributing Editor Jennifer Baljko on Thursday, July 12, at 10:00 a.m. EDT for a Live Chat on high-tech and Europe's economic difficulties.
Microsoft Surface: Potential Winners & Losers What are the implications for the electronics industry supply chain of Microsoft Corp.'s decision to launch its own tablet PC? Join industry veteran and EE Times' systems and OEM expert Rick Merritt on Tuesday, July 3, at 12:00 pm EDT for a Live Chat on this subject.
Join EBN contributor Jennifer Baljko on Thursday August 23, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. EST for a live chat on how electronic manufacturers in Thailand have shored up their supply chain to reduce the impact of future natural disasters.
Peter Drucker famously said "Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window." Yet in the razor's-edge world of electronics—with a lean supply chain and just-in-time demands—the need to know the future is vital.
While no one really can accurately predict the future, we can take guidance from another Drucker saying which is the best way to predict the future is to create it.
You've heard the saying "the No. 1 supply chain risk is your people." That hasn't always been the case. But today's complex global supply chain requires a new type of multitalented employee. It's one who understands, finance, marketing, economics, is savvy with technology, graceful with relationships and can think analytically.
Where are these people? Are universities properly preparing the next generation supply chain professionals? How do train your existing workforce for these new, demanding positions?
Brian Fuller, editor-in-chief of EBN, will lead a 60-minute Avnet Velocity panel discussion that will ask and answer these and other questions swirling around today's supply-chain talent challenges.
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