MacDailyNews Take: Hoping for a good punchline…
Svensson writes, “The International Consumer Electronics Show, which kicks off this week in Las Vegas.”
MacDailyNews Take: Alas.
Svensson writes, “The elephant is Apple. It won’t be at the show this year, but its tablet computer, the iPad, is the most important new product for an industry that needs to once again excite consumers. Sales of the iPad have been strong since its April debut, and the whole industry is now trying to mimic Apple’s success.”
Apple itself doesn’t do trade shows. When Apple has new products to reveal, such as iPads or iPhones, it stages its own events,” Svensson writes. “But nearly every other company in the industry will be there for CES, which runs Thursday to Sunday and is the largest trade show of any kind in the Americas. A good many of them will show off their tablets — computing slabs with touch-sensitive screens.”
“DisplaySearch analyst Richard Semenza estimated that a hundred different tablet models are in development, though not all of them will reach store shelves. Competing tablets will have a hard time catching up to Apple’s lead, at least this year. Certainly, no one managed to do so last year, even though a lot of manufacturers, including Dell, brought out tablets. Samsung did have some success with its Galaxy Tab, but sales didn’t come close to the iPad’s,” Svensson writes. “‘For the next year or two, we expect there to be a lot of false starts, failed attempts, and disasters,’ Richard Shim, another DisplaySearch analyst, said in a blog post.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Gotta love how he singles out beleaguered Dell as if they matter. Some people have yet to fully grasp what’s happened the past few years.
they haven’t grasped what has happened the last few years because they hold a smaller sliver of hope things will return to normal, just like they hold onto a sliver of hope of a CES announcement of Verizon iPhone. not going to happen either way.
The differentiating factor which none of the putative tablet competitors realize is the elegant unification of software and hardware that Apple realizes.
When you have to depend on a rip off artist like Google to write the underlying OS for your tablet you can’t help but end up with a ‘me too’ product.
Not to mention your customers having to put up with being Google’s marketing tool to draw advertisers in. A big fail in so many respects.
In some sense, Apple doesn’t consider itself to be ‘consumer electronics company’. However, companies like Sony, JVC, Toshiba, and others that make a plethora of products with low margins do. What sets Apple apart? They make more than just gadgets, they help make experiences for users. By comparison, they make very few products, but make them very well. EVERYONE knows about Apple, the entire CES ‘industry’ is striving to follow/copy/emulate Apple. Why should Apple waste any money attending what is becoming the Wal-Mart of gadget and junkware promotions; CES?
Apple and its products are the gold standard for the rest of the industry, they certainly don’t need to advertise that.
They fail to realize that:
1. Windows slates have been totally kneecapped by their dependence on Intel chips.
2. Android slates have been kneecapped by Google’s slow tablet OS development and are just oversized Android phones, yet not big enough to offer a fundamentally different user experience.
3. Apple already has the scale to compete with anyone on price.
4. Apple is not playing the telco pricing shell game with tablets this time. There won’t be BOGOF for slates.
5. Apple is totally sidelining the telcos with slates. Think about it. Verizon is selling iPads with no CDMA chip and no two year contract. Verizon is simply another store-front.
6. The Android OEMs are going to have to beat each other’s brains out for mindshare, components, developers, marketshare, shelf space, telco subsidies, and advertising. And coming up with a unique product in the sea of Android clones.
Synth,
You’re spot on. Nice, concise analysis.
Brian
‘For the next year or two, we expect there to be a lot of false starts, failed attempts, and disasters,’ Richard Shim, another DisplaySearch analyst, said in a blog post.”
Nailed it. The same thing that happened with the iPod and iPhone. It remains to be seen if competitors can copy the iPad formula well enough to compete in a meaningful way.
CES can ‘QQ’ all it wants…
feel the burn, beyotch…
MaWo: ‘work; As in, “CES should do some…”
The Difference between Apple and the “consumer electronics” makers is apple sticks to software and the hardware it runs on. Everyone else buys the software from where, throughs a few hunks of silicon in a plastic box and calls it whatever they want. Other companies like samsung can’t compete. They are too diversified. How will a company that makes refrigerators, stoves, TVs, DVD players, and everything thing else electronic under the sun compete with someone like Apple? It just simply can’t.
Synth nailed it.
Agreed, synth nailed it. Especially point 6.
On the contrary, “Apple” will be everywhere at CES, in the hands of attendees and in the booths of vendors. It’s just Apple, the company, that will be “officially” absent.
That’s maximizing exposure at minimum cost and effort.
Synth
What th hell is “kneecapped”
And what type of name is that?
“And MacDailyNews Take: Gotta love how he singles out beleaguered Dell as if they matter”
They do actually.
Apple is stupid not making an appearance at CES.