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Technology pundits proudly ascribed the title, “The Year of the Tablet” to 2011. So far that designation has been a total flop, unless they meant “The Year of the iPad.” With Apple soaring atop the global corporate landscape, the company has more money than most countries, including mine (of course, my country technically has about $15 trillion less than most broke people, but who’s counting?). Thanks to strong, unrelenting global demand for the iPad, Apple will soon be worth more than the entire world, if that is possible.
Disaster at HP
Microsoft made headlines last year for pulling the plug on its loser Kin phone less than two months (55 days to be exact) after it came out (I was telling people that Kin was a loser from the moment Microsoft leaked news of the product). The demise of the HP TouchPad (TP for short) and WebOS is worse than the Kind debacle.
What is the difference between bathroom TP and the HP TP? The only thing soft about the TP is its sales. People will actually buy TP for their bathroom.
Retailers to HP: Get this scat off our shelves!
First, HP set a new record for the “massively large investment in a loser product” category: it only lasted 49 days. I’ve not seen any accurate sales reports for the product, but I think that Leo Apotheker bought a TouchPad. Unfortunately, he already had an iPad, so he gave it to a homeless drunk because he didn’t have a quarter on him. Retailers did what they could with the TouchPad. They used it to jam open doors, swat flies, play frisbee, etc. Still, there is no room in retail for products nobody (literally nobody) wants.
Dashed dreams
Poor Leo, WebOS was going to rival Apple for cross-platform success. HP computers would have WebOS (did I mention that HP’s ditching its PC business too?) and all of the wonderful fluffy-kins out here who are just dying to have a non-iPad tablet (all two-and-a-half of them) would be clamoring to get on board with the revolution. Yes, the lie of the “Year of the Tablet” struck HP hard.
Blackberry Playbook 7-Inch Tablet (16GB)
Tablet Disaster
The Microsoft Kin disaster was different from the HP TouchPad nightmare in one key way: the demise of the Kin was not the result of a failing industry. The Kin is gone, but smartphones and regular cell phones still sell like hotcakes. TouchPad failed because no one wants a tablet that is not an iPad. Get it? Sheesh.
Poor marketing
Maybe analysts are right when they say that poor marketing is why no one wants tablets. After all, they say, Apple has extreme experience with marketing exciting products. How do huge, multi-billion dollar global companies get so big without marketing skills? Sure, Apple is big, but it wasn’t very big before the iPhone and iPad showed up.
Sure, Apple took a winning approach by pitching the iPad to iPod users. The average iPad owner doesn’t give a rip what kind of CPU it has, how it connects to a computer, why the camera isn’t as good as the one on iPhone or anything else.
Apple said, “Check out this cool thingy that is even cooler than your iPod.”
iPod owners said, “Duhhhhhh, that looks really cool! I want one!”
Meanwhile every one of the 15 bazillion Tablet makers out there are going around trying to prove that their product is just as cool as the iPad. Too bad.
It’s not the features and specs, stupid!
Tablets have plenty of features. Dual core CPUs, brilliant displays, 4G connectivity, USB ports and more make non-Apple tablets superior to the iPad in most cases. People who want to be productive and have fun can do far more with an Android tablet, but that does not matter.
The problem is that iPad buyers don’t care about the specs. People buy iPads because they are iPads. Blame it on marketing, blame it on Best Buy, blame it on grandma, but that is a fact. Unless a tablet is an iPad, it will not sell.
When Fox News reported on The Year of the Tablet, it said
Regardless of OS or manufacturer, it’s clear that tablets will explode in 2011. This year, thin will most definitely be in.
Boy, were they wrong.
Will things change?
I’m not a prophetess, but I think the market might eventually open its mind to alternative tablets. However, something needs to happen to tarnish the iPad image in the public mind – AND – a tablet maker needs to survive long enough to see consumer sentiment change.
Just remember: there was a time when no one thought a smartphone other than an iPhone could take root. Now, Android smartphones are everywhere.
