Tablet turns to the spotlight at Spring Computer Expo

TAIWAN: According to DRAMeXchange, a research department of Trendforce, after iPad2 launched in 2Q10, many vendors penetrated the tablet market from 2H10. Acer and Asus has announced Android 3.0 tablet in the 2011 Taipei Spring Computer Expo while other vendors such as Dell, Viewsonic, Gigabyte, MSI, FIC and Samsung released their Android and Windows tablet. A competitive tablet market will be expected in 2H11.

DRAMeXchange concluded some comments from the show. First, the improvement of Android 3.0 operating system in terms of software and user experience and the gap between iOS is narrowing. We see even Android 2.2 improved dramatically as well. In spite of dominating 70-80 percent market share from iOS in 2011, Android is likely to gain more market share and becomes a threat to iOS in 2012-2013.

Second, Windows 7 tablet, such as Acer Iconia W500, Gigabyte S1080, MSI Windpad 100W and FIC Tycoon is targeting at corporate market that are accustomed to Windows interface and Microsoft Office. DRAMeXchange thinks that the new functionality such as D-Sub, docking and higher storage capacity is critical to the Windows tablet user and likely trigger the shipment momentum. However, the Windows 7 tablet, equipped with Intel and AMD CPU, will be much improved if the power consumption and thermal issue can be improved.

Third, priced at NTD$11900, Samsung introduced their WIFI version of Galaxy Tab. Not only is the price lower than the Windows 7 Tablets (NT$19,000-22,000), but also cheaper than other Android tablets (NTD$13,000-$19,000). Compared with the retail price at initially set at US$699-799 (NTD$20,000-23,000), the new price of 7”inch galaxy tab has been much reduced that we think it’s from the heavy challenge of iPad in terms of hardware spectrum and price. However, vendors will continue their efforts in becoming cost-competitive in order to face Apple and other competitors.