Apple’s Intro into Tablets May Mirror Same Path as Smartphones
Posted on 05. Apr, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey in Features
Remember 2007? That summer was a magical time for smartphone enthusiasts. That was the summer that Apple introduced the iPhone, and while many said it wouldn’t work (marrying an iPod with a phone would be crazy) the exact opposite happened. Apple changed the smartphone market, created an application store that developers now salivate over and created an operating system platform that now extends to their newest product, the iPad.
It wasn’t too long after that Google announced it would lead a consortium to develop an open source platform for mobile phones called Android. Unlike the iPhone, however, Android took a different path to development into a highly touted architecture used by many smartphone manufacturers. The first phone with Android, the G4 manufactured by the little-know HTC with wireless service by T-Mobile, was a curious device and one that only captured the interests of the most early of the early adopters.
Now Android is a successful commercial system, but because of its open source nature it is not only in smartphones but also in netbooks, tablets and even cars. I can’t wait to run Android on my fridge. It’s so hard to keep organized right now.
Fast forward to today. I do apologize for being repetitive, but here’s the story so far.
Apple introduced the iPad, and while many said that it won’t work (supersizing an iPod Touch would be crazy) the exact opposite may or may not happen (600,000 sold already is not bad though). Apple potentially has changed the tablet market, with an application market that developers are salivating over and offering a device that is far cheaper and more widespread than any other tablet that is on the market.
You can fill in the rest for Chrome OS. I don’t have that information yet, but I would assume that the iPad is leading the way for some interesting open source development when it comes to tablets and other devices.
One Response to “Apple’s Intro into Tablets May Mirror Same Path as Smartphones”
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Mats
05. Apr, 2010
Quite. Just like the iPhone paved the path for the smartphone format, and Asus eee for the NetBook format, iPad is doing the same for the Tablet format. I doubt the iPad will be market leader (in # of sold units) in say 2 years, but it’ll legitimize the market – And we’ll “all” have a tablet (probably with Chrome or Android) to accompany our smartphones.