Just two years ago, netbooks were all the rage at the Consumer Electronics Show. Major electronics manufacturers were sporting new designs. Last year, the tide started shifting toward e-readers. Now CES organizers are officially dubbing 2011 the “year of the tablet.”
“Apple’s launch of the iPad has left an undeniable print on the mobile computing space. After a decade with minimal success, a tablet computing device is finally garnering mass-market appeal,” said Shawn Dubravac, chief economist and director of research for the Consumer Electronics Association. “There are many factors driving this trend — not least of which is timing. The global appeal of Apple’s iPad is simultaneously brazening others to enter the fold and compete for this quickly growing market.”
Remember E-Readers?
While many firms touted product launches within the tablet sphere in the fourth quarter of 2010, Dubravac said the real action is at CES. He compared the tablet craze to the e-reader craze at last year’s CES, where more than a dozen new devices were unveiled.
“Design cycles as they are mean tablets are really a 2011 story, not as much a 2010 one, and CES will mark the debut for many of these,” Dubravac said. “I have a list of 80-plus tablets that have been announced and many of these will see the light of day at the 2011 CES.”
With competition heating up, Dubravac said every aspect of differentiation will be on the table — operating system, screen size, color and available applications. As a product matures, aspects like screen sizes consolidate. Dubravac pointed to the flat-panel market where screens mostly group around set sizes. But with a nascent category like tablets, standards have yet to be established and everything is on the table, he said.
“Significant growth for a nascent category will also propel adjacent, but-not-to-be-overlooked markets like accessories,” Dubravac…