Thursday, June 28, 2012

Why a Google tablet like Nexus 7 won't gain traction

Google debuts its latest and greatest smartphone OS, Android Jelly Bean, with the Nexus 7

Designed to compete against market leader, Apple iPad, the new Google tablet will get more competition from large sized phones called phablets and make only a slight dent to the iPad marketshare.

No real competition for the iPad:
  • Even though Android market penetration has been phenomenal, there are still more quality apps on the Apple AppStore due to numerous reasons (OS fragmentation, less paying users)
  • The iPad's 11 inch screen size makes content consumption much more satisfying than a small 7 inch
  • With very little marketshare in the tablet area, most app developers will continue to target the phone market so the Google tablets with just run upsized phone apps unlike the the thousand of iPad specific apps.
More competition from fellow Android devices:
  • Phablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Note at 5 inch creeps into tablet area while including 3G/4G connectivity and calling capabilities.  Phablets sold on contract can potentially undercut the price of tablets
  • Android phones like the Galaxy Nexus and phablets will eventually get Jelly Bean
  • With very little marketshare in the tablet area, most app developers will continue to target the phone market so the Google tablets won't be able to differentiate or gain from the added display real estate
Although Jelly Bean was hyped up with a new Nexus tablet, it's minor version update, 4.1 from Ice Cream Sandwich's 4.0, is really just a minor update which doesn't bring any significant functionality.  I was really hoping for the rumored docking feature.

No comments: