Google Inc and Microsoft Corp will challenge the supremacy of Apple’s iPad as new tablet models are announced in Taipe’s Computex trade show this week. Google’s Android OS and Microsoft’s new Windows platform will be observed by investors and analyze if they are any match to Apple’s iPad. KGI Securities Co’s analyst Angela Hsiang said investors will want to know which tablet is better in performance and price and when the non-iPad camp will get going. She said, previously, people couldn’t actually see the products but at Computex, they can touch and use the products.
Microsoft will be revealing a new platform which will be carefully analyzed by investors to see if it can stand up against Apple.
In 2007-2008 Computex, Acer Inc and Asustek Computer Inc stirred the market with their low-cost netbooks. This week, they will showcase features of Google’s Android. Executives from Google and Microsoft will be at the event to give updates. Qualcomm Inc and Nvidia Corp, users of chips and chip designs from Intel Corp and ARM Holdings Plc will also have their products compete. In a May 26 report, analyst Toni Sacconaghi of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co, said by 2015 tablets shipments worldwide will reach 215 million units. PC sales will be reduced by 15% by tablets and annual sales between 2010 and 2015 will be less 2%. According to iSuppli Corp, new competitors will cut Apple’s market share by 50% in 2012.
A sample of Microsoft’s tablet OS based on ARM chips will be featured, said 3 insiders. Microsoft’s current platform, Windows 7, uses Samsung and Motorola tablets which are not ARM chip compatible. This month, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said machines based on a new Microsoft OS, dubbed Windows 8, are due for release next year but retracted the “misstatement” later. Hsiang said future’s big development is ARM plus Microsoft, and if that’s a success then it’ll be big for the market. Windows 8 will also impact the market because many people can’t get used to Android while they’re familiar with Windows, added Hsiang.
ARM president Tudor Brown said ARM technology which supports the iPad and iPhone, looks at getting 50% of tablets, notebooks and netbook chips market share by 2015. They expect a climb of 15% by the end of 2011. The strong early lead in tablets and the smartphone market of Google supported its applications store expansion. That success, said IDC analyst Helen Chiang, balances Google’s software development immaturity. She said most vendors still worry about quality and stability and choose Google because its cost is lower as the operating system is free, while Windows adds to the price.
