On the eve of the launch of Apple’s third generation iPad, we decided to delve into why Apple has little competition in the tablet market. We already touched on why we thought Apple was & still is the king of the tablets. But now it is time to shed some light on their main competitor, Android, and what we feel they can do to improve. As we reported, manufacturers have spent the past year releasing Android tablet after tablet to only generate half of what Apple is doing in sales. Analysts put the numbers of Android tablets at 23.1 million sold versus the 43 million iPads sold for 2011. Android manufacturers like Samsung and ASUS can make beautiful hardware and everyone is already familiar with the Android OS, so what exactly is the problem?
A big problem Android tablet makers have is the pricing. Obviously not as many people are paying $500 for a Wi-Fi Android tablet over an iPad. Along with Apple having a great deal control over the iPad’s pricing allows for great month-to-month bundles for those seeking data plans. While Google has to rely on carriers that will slap on a two-year contract for a tablet data plan which will easily deter potential customers. People already have enough bills in the current economy and most are not gonna add another two-year contract for a tablet. Apple is definitely justifying the pricing more than Android is with a wider variety of abilities via apps. This leads to their other problem…
Which is the providing the proper app optimization for a bigger display. You want an app to take advantage of the bigger screen rather than use a phone version of it on a tablet. Even though Android’s app ecosystem has improved, they are still outnumbered in comparison for optimized apps. Apple’s iOS on the iPad is a less complex OS than the various versions of Android out there. Keep in mind not every Apple app is optimized but you have over 100,000 to choose from over Android’s under 1,000 apps. Android’s tablet OS Honeycomb or platform 3.0, has not been their most stable of the OS versions since it was their first take of using their OS on a tablet. Android’s newest update Ice Cream Sandwich or platform 4.0 merges the tablet and phone Android experience into one OS for the two devices. Hopefully whenever this update trickles down the pipeline (thanks to Google’s lack of controlling their updating system), more developers will get on-board to create the proper look for Android tablet apps.
Where everyone else seemed to fail, Amazon definitely has been observing the market before releasing the Kindle Fire. They provided their own Android ecosystem available for only $200, everyone easily ran to that. Although the Fire didn’t exactly sell as many iPads, they were able to put a dent within its hold over the tablet market share. Analysts put Amazon’s profit margin for Fire sales very low with their price tag on every unit sold. This a move that other the manufacturers are not willing to risk as they prefer to make more $$$ on every tablet sold, even if they don’t sell many of them. You can’t completely blame them as this is the business of making $$$.
A simple solution for Android tablet makers would be to follow Amazon’s model with the Fire. Not exactly to a tee but use similar methods like come down on your pricing. Maybe $300 instead of $500 for a premium Wi-Fi Android slate. Since Google needs carriers, I doubt better data plan pricing is on the way. So that may not be fixable until they acquire more hardware makers like they did with Motorola Mobility to then claim more control of their pricing models. Amazon got creative and fragmented the OS into their own version rather than throwing a UI skin over it like TouchWiz or Sense providing a more unique experience. Hopefully these are notes Google takes into consideration when putting together the next big software update. There are rumors that they are working on a Nexus tablet w/ ASUS. Hopefully it will not suck.
