Sudden Rise of the Tablet

It is getting quite ridiculous, all the news coming out about the iPad. It was reported quite recently that the American Customer Satisfaction Index  (ACSI) rated the iPad at 86 points out of a 100.

Purportedly the iPad scored higher than any of the products ACSI has ever tracked. Quite a glowing endorsement if you think about it. But the thing is, tablet technology is not exactly new. Microsoft has been trying to flog off tablet PCs  for awhile now but they haven’t exactly set the world on fire.Then Apple came along and now they can’t make can’t make iPads fast enough. The iPad was certainly a surprise announcement since it was expected Apple would come up with a netbook equivalent instead. Some even equated the iPad to nothing more than a super-sized iPod Touch.

What makes the iPad different from Microsoft’s attempts is Apple’s marketing savvy as well as a core of faithful Apple users. Apple already has a ready market of people who are pretty much guaranteed to get one.

The iPad could very well help convert more to the fold and fuel the creation of more wannabe iPad-killers. If the iPod and Macbooks are any proof, the killers will hardly dent Apple’s market share if at all.

Ebooks Come Into Their Own

One device that will probably feel the iPad’s effect more than most is the Kindle as well as other digital readers. The Kindle has become one of the surprise hits of the last couple of years as more people take to buying digital books.

What the iPad has going for it is the ability to do more than just read ebooks. Users can game on their iPads, surf, check email, watch movies and take advantage of a host of apps for the device.

Magazines and newspapers have embraced digital delivery with the iPad. You can now subscribe to magazines such as GQ and Wired as well as read your favourite newspapers. Even The Star now has an iPad app for readers to peruse the newspaper.

Publishing revenues have been going down, leading to the closure of many a print title. But serving content digitally might become the new horizon for most publishers, heralding a new era where content creation is no longer shackled to printing presses.

The iPad is not going to kill actual physical books. On the other hand, writers are going to see their works delivered to a wider audience. What is more, selling their work is actually going to be easier.

Look at the subscription-based services that have already embraced the iPad. Magazines and newspapers find that iPad buyers are willing to fork out the necessary monthly fees to be able to read on the iPad.

Reading a digital copy of Wired magazine, for instance, is an experience different from reading it in print. Propping up the iPad on a stand, you can leisure read its contents by turning the pages with a mere swipe and enjoy the multimedia extras, like video, that comes with the digital edition.

Does Size Matter?

So far most of the iPad’s contenders have come in far smaller form factors. The elegant Samsung Tab is but a mere 7-inches. Svelte in comparison to the larger bulk of the iPad but the Tab doesn’t have the wealth of apps or digital subscriptions the iPad has.

Right now Apple still owns the superior app store but the iPad might not be the superior tablet. For instance, it runs on far less RAM than its competitors and lacks a camera or SD card slot. Other tablets cram in those features at nearly a thousand ringgit cheaper than the iPad.

The thing is, despite its bigger bulk, iPad sales are still brisk. It is really a case of what customers want and it seems they are liking the iPad. Still, there are rumours that Apple just might release a smaller version of the iPad which would lead to quite a line diversification.

What of the iPod Touch? Isn’t that a somewhat smaller version of the iPad? The iPod Touch is likely Apple’s test bed for the iPad in the first place. As a friend of mine remarked, he thought he didn’t need fancy features and that a plain old vanilla MP3 player would suit him fine. But once he got his hands on an iPod Touch, he changed his tune.

What the iPod Touch demonstrated was that users liked having apps at their fingertips with or without it being a phone. What will make or break the iPad’s feature is the App Store’s continued success. If a smaller, 7-incher debuts from Apple, it might pretty well spell the death knell for the traditional tablet as we know it.

Nintendo and Sony are seeing their handheld gaming devices slowly lose out to the what’s available on the iPod Touch, the iPhone as well as the iPad. With successful ports of games such as Capcom’s Street Fighter and SquareEnix’s Final Fantasy series, classic games as well as newer console titles are finding their way to Apple machines.

The Nintendo DS and Sony Playstation Portables are not as versatile as Apple’s devices. It would be hard to justify a portable gaming device as a corporate purchase but an iPad? Not so much. Apple has cornered the market in versatile all-in-one devices and attracted game developers as well as indie programmers.

Netbook Killer?

So will Apple kill the netbook market? At this point of time, the netbook market might well shrink. With keyboards adapted for the Apple iPad, the device could well replace netbooks in totality. Though competitors will jostle for a piece of the tablet pie, the iPad will still remain.

Netbooks were interesting but they do not embody that sheer technological awe that touch technology brings to the table. Apple for all its marketing hype understands the magnetic attraction of the next big thing.

What is certain is that Apple’s gamble on the iPad has paid off. The challenge now is to still remain on top of the game.