The Top Three Reasons Tablet PCs Aren’t Beating iPads… Yet

When the first mainstream tablet PC, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, was released, it was heralded as something of an iPad killer.

History repeats itself, after all, and when the Android-enabled smartphones were released, they certainly ate into a chunk of Apple iPhone sales. So industry experts were likely relying on the same thing to happen again on the tablet battlefield.

Unfortunately, the data seems to show that the public has been slower to adapt to alternative OS-powered tablet PCs. And when this information began pouring in, news sources from around the world were happy to decry the failure of Tablet PCs.

Barclay’s analyst Ben Reitzes, after consulting with researchers from Forrester, stated that he expects Apple to maintain the lion’s share of the tablet market, dominating over 70 percent of 2011’s tablet sales.

OS developers and tablet manufacturers alike are struggling to catch-up, and that’s bound to be the case for awhile.

Here are a few reasons why tablet PCs are struggling at this time, particularly when it comes to business utilization:

• Marketing: Apple is a marketing machine. Its marketing team is just as important to it as its technical one. The public simply might not know about Tablet PCs yet – and if they are aware of them, it could be that they’re not sure of the capabilities.
• Timing: Apple got out of the gate first, and in many ways, it was well-prepared to do so. Rumors are circulating of an impending iPad 2.0 HDrelease, which may be stymieing the purse-strings of more than a few individuals. Consumers want to see what next gen will offer before they turn to the competition’s tablet PCs.
• Apps: To the current generation, it is all about the apps. Angry Birds, Zipcar, Foursquare – they want it all. And Apple actively markets itself (there’s that pesky marketing team again) as having “the world’s largest collection of mobile apps.” Apple can thank its iPhone for that – they already had a large database of apps on hand, which were relatively easy to port over to the new iPad platform – automatically putting it ahead of its competitors.

As an aside, Vernon Computer Source’s editorial team does not share the mainstream media’s views on tablet PCs. Yes, Apple is currently dominating the market, but we feel like the future of alternative devices, like the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the HP Slate 500, is quite bright.

Currently the market’s reflections might not be that favorable for the future of these tablet PCs, but Vernon anticipates positive change. As the public becomes more familiar with the benefits that can come from iPad alternatives, and as any issues with app development are ironed out, it expects tablet PC rental business to boom.

And that’s why Vernon carries the best tablet PCs for rental-- it anticipates its customers’ needs well into the future.