Apple just released their quarterly statements for the period ending December 25th 2010 and it proclaimed that they had sold 7.3 million iPads during that fiscal quarter. During all 4 quarters last year, the total of iPads sold brought the number up to 14.79 million units sold. Quite the astounding number for the company that has engineered a new arms race on the tablet pc segment.
Apple first released the iPad in April of last year and saw an international release a month later, after some setbacks. In pure sales, Apple currently dominates the tablet computing market. They basically cornered the entire segment before any rival contenders could really pose any sort of threat. Many companies have billed their items as the iPad killer, but really did pose any kind of threat.
2011 looks to be a bigger year for tablet computers as an alternative to the iPad, for the chief reason the operating system that could rival iOS will come out in a few months, Google 3.0. Many tablets were issued last year, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab, JooJoo, Archos and many others. The one drawback most had, is that they were using a Android Phone OS that was not indicitive to larger screen devices. With the advent of Google Android 3.0, which is geared towards tablet computers, as we saw at CES with the Motorola Xoom, the next generation of tablets looks sweet indeed.
Apple could see more competition heating up as rivals, RIM, HP, Motorola, Google, Asus and others are joining the tablet PC arms race. RIM will be using their Playbook which is using a QNX operating system, while HP is betting on their aquisitiion of Palm with a WebOS offering and the others will be using the Android operating system.
Its solid to see more competition to iOs, not only from Google Android, but other operating systems as well. Although all of this tablets might have to compete against the iPad 2, which will launch in May.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
