The tablet market has exploded with a total on warfare this month and exploded again today. Major players have declared a total war for ruling the tablet.
First of all Intel introduced the quad core atom that enables tablets that are lighter than the ipad 3 to run full windows 8.1. In chime Microsoft bundled Office home and student with windows 8 on these tablets so that you can get a Windows 8 tablet with quad core atom chip and full windows and office home and student starting at 350$ from reputable manufacturers like Dell and Asus. For example the Dell venue 8 pro shown below on the left starts at 299$ for the 32GB version!
Full windows tablets with Quadcore Atom and Office Home and Student
But Apple did not stand still and they opened an all out offensive with the newly announced ipad Air which packs more than double the processing power of an ipad 2 in a tablet that is 130g lighter, making it the “lightest full size tablet”. The new ipad mini with retina display has the same high performance cpu in the same size and nearly the same weight as the old ipad mini.
Lighter and faster
The biggest loser is Android, it will be squeezed from both sides. There is no android tablet as light as the new Ipad, although the Sony xperia tablet z is just 30 or so grams heavier and waterproof. And the huge new selection of windows tablets will reduce its market share.
Over all I think apple will keep its market share, windows will eat a good chunk of the high end of Android tablets, cheep Chinese tablets will not suffer, in Egypt where cheap Chinese tablets are sold in places like Radio Shack for 2000LE should adjust their prices or forever remain unsold. Another problem is that in Egypt we seldom see the real prices of windows tablets reflect the international prices. I would expect the 299 Dell Venue pro to sell for 3800LE in Egypt when it should be selling for just a tad bit higher than 2500LE!!
( look out for my next blog post about how you can run a open office for free on your android phone, phablet or tablet! )
