In the top five we have Lenovo and Acer tablet reappearing.
Top Five Tablet Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, Second Quarter 2013 (Shipments in millions)
| Vendor |
2Q13 Unit Shipments |
2Q13 Market Share |
2Q12 Unit Shipments |
2Q12 Market Share |
Year-over-Year Growth |
| 1. Apple |
14.6 |
32.4% |
17.0 |
60.3% |
-14.1% |
| 2. Samsung |
8.1 |
18.0% |
2.1 |
7.6% |
277.0% |
| 3. ASUS |
2.0 |
4.5% |
0.9 |
3.3% |
120.3% |
| 4. Lenovo |
1.5 |
3.3% |
0.4 |
1.3% |
313.9% |
| 5. Acer |
1.4 |
3.1% |
0.4 |
1.4% |
247.9% |
| Others |
17.5 |
38.8% |
7.4 |
26.2% |
136.6% |
| Total |
45.1 |
100.0% |
28.3 |
100.0% |
59.6% |
Source: IDC Worldwide Tablet Tracker, August 5, 2013
I am expecting to see some serious new models comming up on the third quarted to warm up the market. Let’s see what will launch Apple for the next quarter to close the gap.
]]>According to Microsoft there will be two versions of Microsoft Surface. One running Windows RT and another one running Windows 8 Pro.
An interesting feature is that the cover becomes an ultra thin keyboard.
The Windows RT version will have the following characteristics:
The Windows 8 Pro version will have the following characteristics:
Microsoft has no data on the mobile information related to Surface.
For a hands-on review click here.
It appears that Microsoft tries to create a tablet that will be comparable to iPad. To my opinion this is a tough task to succeed.
From what I saw, the only feature that is new is the touch cover. I am using a tablet (iPad) for long time now. I bought a keyboard / cover that I do not use. In my opinion this is not a great feature to decide for a purchase of a tablet. You can always buy an external keyboard if you need one.
In my opinion tablet software is still in its infancy. We are approaching the tablet from the wrong angle. Even companies have not decided yet on the features they want to offer for the tablet.
Let’s take for example the iPad. I have the iPad 3G. I do not want to jailbreak it. I cannot use it as a phone. I need to carry 2 devices. A mobile phone and a tablet. I have the simplest mobile phone on the planet (without camera) just to make phone calls and I do all my work using the iPad. Will Microsoft give 3G to Surface? Will Microsoft allow users to make phone calls from their tablets? Will Microsoft use the kinect knowledge to create a more intuitive interface for Surface?
A Lot of questions which only the future can answer.
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Before making my final choice I wrote down my needs along with devices that allowed me to do so:
For this functionality I considered the Kindle Fire. It has a 7″ display 1024 x 600 pixel resolution at 169 ppi, 16 million colors. It also has 8GB enough to store movies and books.
Both Kindle Fire and Samsung Galaxy offer this
VPN is a common feature for all tablets.
This feature puzzled me a lot. Ipad 2 is not supporting flash. I decided to follow down the HTML 5 path.
I want to be connected all time.
This option erased Kindle Fire from my list.
Although almost all tablets meet my requirements, I choose iPad 2, mainly for its stability and ease of use.
I found only one annoying thing. It has a strange limit on 3G, you cannot download files greater than 20MB. I have no download limit from my carrier, so it is strange that the iPad has this limit. I hope Apple to remove this barrier in the near future.
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