At the start of a SXSW Interactive panel on the future of tablet computing, a show of strength. Each of the panelists put all their devices out in front of them. Between the five of them, there were more than 20 phones and tablets.
Clearly these were not amateurs.
To decide whether the iPad would continue to prevail as the world’s tablet, Sarah Perez of ReadWriteWeb led a rich discussion of the tablet and mobile market, but one that didn’t reach any sort of official final word.
The unspoken conclusion, though, was yes, the iPad is the clear winner.
Perez, who admitted to being fanatic about Google’s Android operating system, said she puts an iPad in front of her 14-month-old infant, and the baby intuitively knows how to use it.
There’ll be a generation that grows up on these tablets, and chances are they’ll grow up on the iPad.
While Blackberry and every other competitor readies the launch of an iPad-like tablet, Apple is already onto the second iteration of the iPad. How is anyone going to catch up?
As is commonly said – and said again at this panel – Apple has mastered the art of selling the same product over and over. The iPad 2, released this month, is very much the same as the iPad. The four iPhones the company released, each one a bestseller, have very little to separate them also.
For users, the iPad and tablet are becoming interchangable. And that obviously influences developers.
The average developer will work in this order in creating apps: first for Apple’s iOS, then for Android, then for mobile web, then, maybe, Blackberry’s OS. Tablet platforms like Meego and others are “dead in the water.”
No apps, no fun, no users.
As Perez rightly pointed out, though, the most opportunity was in Android. She cited a rare case of an Android-first development companies are bound to sprout up, and have a decent chance at turning a profit selling Android apps, which are mostly free right now.
But the tablet wars are not only based on functionality, apps, operating systems or the companies that produce them. Carriers, the companies that put the internet on the devices, have a huge say.
Many tablets are tied into plans. The plans can last years – an eternity in the mobile market. For instance, Rogers is selling Samsung Galaxy tablets at a competitive price, but only with a three year plan. Who wants to be stuck with one tablet for three years, when new ones are seemingly released every month?
The reason the panel did come out an endorse an iPad-led tablet market is because absolute power corrupts absolutely. Apple shouldn’t lead. Competition is good for the market, and consumers are lucky Google and other giant firms are entering the tablet market.
In the end the winner, Perez and the panel agreed, would be the tablet-buying public. They probably meant to say iPad though.
