Apple wowed Wall Street this week when it exceeded investors’ expectations by shipping 7.3 million iPads in the fourth quarter. However, several dozen rival tablets are slated for introduction this year, and at least some of them will offer features that can match — or even exceed — what Apple’s iPad currently delivers.
Apple is counting on its reputation as the leading innovator in the field to keep its marketplace edge. For many rivals, however, the market has become too important to ignore — especially since tablet sales have already begun to cannibalize their netbook sales. The latest analyst forecasts also demonstrate that there is plenty of money to be made in the emerging tablet segment.
“We are very bullish on the potential [of the tablet] market and forecast 65 million units for 2011, growing to 208 million for 2014,” said Gartner Research Vice President Carolina Milanesi.
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She was not surprised at all by Apple’s high level of iPad shipments in the final three months of 2010. “I warned people that Apple was going to have a great fourth quarter and not to judge the potential for the market from third-quarter results — when the country coverage was limited and supply was impacted by shortages,” Milanesi said. “We factored in eight million for the quarter.”
Apple executives took pains this week to downplay the potential impact of rival tablets as ineffective iPad competitors, given their reliance on OS systems not expressly developed for tablets. “If somebody does a side-by-side with an iPad, I think some enormous percentage of people is going to select iPad,” Apple Chief Operating Officer Timothy Cook told investors.
Indeed, a recent consumer survey by Piper Jaffray found an overwhelming preference toward the iPad over a similar Android tablet, noted analysts Gene Munster, Michael Olson, and Andrew…