Apple will continue owning the majority of the WW tablet market-- as it does nowadays-- at least up til through 2015, according to Gartner. 69% of tablets will carry iOS by 2011's end, and 47% of the market will in 2015.
Gartner says most other vendors competing against Apple fail to give customers really want-- apps, services and slick user experiences. Instead, such vendors prefer to concentrate on hardware features, just as they did when competing against iOS on smartphones.
The analyst forecasts further growth for Android, from 20% WW tablet marketshare in 2011 to 39% in 2015. Google's decision (for the moment) to close down Honeycomb to all but a select group of developers is something of a double edged sword-- on one hand it will prevent fragmentation (and supposedly drive more control), on the other it will slow down price decline, thus capping its market share.
RIM's migration of its entire Blackberry portfolio to QNX (the Playbook OS) should offer customers a single consistent experience-- at least once the Playbook hits the market.
Finally, MeeGo and WebOS will remain stuck with limited customer appeal until they also manage to grow within the smartphone market.
Go Gartner Says Apple iOS to Dominate Tablet Market Through 2015
Some will recall Cisco's buying of the low-cost camera business back in 2009 for $590m, a period where the company was trying to build up its consumer business. No Cisco will be cleaning out its Flip inventory before killing the line entirely.
First seen at this year's CES, PixelOptics now starts shipping its product, what it describes as the world's first electronic focusing eyewear. The glasses can work either automatically, activating a near-vision zone on the lens when one tips down their head, or manually by tapping the frame's side once or twice. The company says the lenses adjust at a speed faster than the blink of an eye-- with no moving parts, as the technology is based on liquid crystals.
Media-Saturn acquires online retailer Redcoon, following various news items on its plans of expanding its online retail strategy.
Peratech announces a clear version of its Quantum Tunnelling Composite (QTC) material, saying it could either replace current resistive touchscreens or enchance capacitative screens.
