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Apple, Microsoft Vie for Tablet Share: A Down Under Perspective

By Petroc Wilton

 

The battle for the Australian tablet market is set to hit new heights in the weeks before Christmas, with Microsoft’s new Surface tablet likely to be competing for mindshare against the widely anticipated release of Apple’s iPad Mini. 

And while analysts are forecasting tough initial hurdles for Microsoft, there’s some consensus that – if priced right – the Mini could see Apple extend its formidable local tablet market share. But there are questions as to how attractive the tablet market will remain long-term for local carriers, at least at the budget end of town, as the Surface goes to market without any cellular connectivity.

 

Microsoft’s Surface: Good-looking

Going on sale next Friday, the Surface is available for pre-order from Australian customers, who in the first instance will only be able to get hold of the device via online delivery; local RRP starts from A$559 for a 32GB version, ramping up to A$789 for a 64GB model with a black Touch Cover – complete with traditional moving keys – bundled in. The first models will run on Windows RT, powered by a NVIDIA T30 processor with 2GB of RAM.

The iPad Mini: will it just be a mini-sized iPad clone? 
The tech sphere  has been speculating for  about a year and will continue to do so till October 23rd

 

The iPad Mini, on the other hand, has yet to be officially confirmed. But an October 23 launch event– with invitations bearing the tagline ‘we’ve got a little more to show you’ – has triggered widespread expectation that Apple is days from announcing its plunge into the mini slate market, in order to compete with smaller, cheaper 7” screen devices like the Google Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HD.

 

The Surface, and the Mini if released, will further swell a booming Australian tablet market; a few weeks ago, analyst firm Telsyte forecast that there’d be 2.37 million units sold by the end of this calendar year. Still, Telsyte research director Foad Fadaghi sees some barriers for entry for Microsoft. “The Surface faces a stiff challenge in the Australian market. It heads into an Apple dominant marketplace and needs to do avoid the mistakes of early Android tablet manufacturers that failed to provide a compelling reason to purchase their products over the iPad,” he told CommsDay. “Surface needs be competitively priced and prove it has usability that matches or exceeds its rivals.”

 

BULLISH ON MINI: Fadaghi was more bullish on the much-rumoured iPad Mini. “Apple seeks to tap into the burgeoning market for smaller form factor media tablets,” he said. “Devices in the lower price points (sub $500) are in high demand and if Apple can move down market without sacrificing too much margin, it’s likely to boost its profits and help it stay dominant in the Australian market.”

 

Vodafone also weighed with its own take on the tablet scene. “Apple established a clear early lead in the tablet market, but we are now seeing far more competition from Android-driven products, with Samsungas a dominant player, but with the later emergence of Amazon and Google’s strong 7 inch tablet devices,”said a spokesman.“The iPad Mini is certainly an interesting play for Apple, and we will be interested to see what Variants become available at launch… [and] the launch of Windows 8 later this month certainlybrings a viable third operating system to the tablet market both globally and in Australia.”

 

Ovum chief telecoms analyst Jan Dawson, while he couldn’t comment specifically on the local market,echoed Fadaghi’s outlook on a broader scale. “The iPad Mini is likely to do very well, and may eveneclipse the performance of the 10 inch version, on a global basis,” he told CommsDay. “It’s likely to be significantly more affordable, and therefore will fit into many more people’s budgets.”

 

“The Surface is much harder to call because no one outside of Microsoft has spent any time with it. We now at least know the price, but we have no idea how it performs in real life, and therefore how competitive it will be compared with the iPad or even other Windows 8 tablets. The fact that the advertising focuses on the keyboard, which doesn’t even come with the device as standard, is a bad sign.”

 

“As for other tablets, Amazon’s latest Kindle Fire devices will slowly become available in other  markets, and there are likely to be one or two additional versions of the Google / Asua Nexus 7, either with more storage or at a lower price. And then there are all the other Windows 8 tablets launching in the next few weeks, in a variety of different shapes and sizes…. overall, the iPad in both its forms, the Surface, the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fires are likely to be the only tablets that sell in significant numbers. “

 

CARRIER CONUNDRUM: But while carriers and analysts alike are forecasting strong ongoing growth in the tablet scene, the Wi-Fi-only Surface could herald a trend that might well see some tablet sales shift away from carriers. “As the low end market is developing, many budget devices do not have 3G or LTE radios, making them less attractive for carriers to sell,” said Fadaghi. “This is swinging the low cost channel in favour of retail and online outlets.”

 

The carriers, for their part, agreed that they’d be focusing primarily on cellular-connected devices.

 

“Optus will continue to offer tablet devices with a range of connectivity options,” said a spokesman for the telco. “[But] looking forward, we will offer tablet devices that can take advantage of the additional speeds and responsiveness of the Optus 4G network.”

 

“At the moment, we only sell tablet with network connectivity,” said a Telstra spokesman. “That’s our focus – we’re a telco company and we rely on that to get the most for our customers.”

 

Vodafone, meanwhile, suggested that devices with a cellular link were more popular in any case. “Vodafone’s preference is to provide true mobile communications solutions to our customers and we have seen the highest demand for devices that offer both 3G and Wi-Fi capabilities,” commented the spokesman. – www.commsday.com




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