Article Index
CES Tablet Wars Analysis: The Battle Lines are Set
Mid & Low End Skirmishes
Clash of the Silicon Titans
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Now that the glitz and glamour of CES is over, it’s the perfect time to look at how the battle lines have been laid out in the tablet market. For make no mistake 2011 is set to be a pivotal year for tablets, with full-scale wars breaking out on all fronts as a multitude of players ranging from silicon vendors and O/S and app developer to device manufacturers and telcos duke it out for dominance in this fast growing market. 

Of course, we are only talking about the “non-iPad” segment of the market here, which even though over 80 (probably more than 100) tablets were shown at CES, will still be dwarfed the 180 pound gorilla from Cupertino in terms of both size and especially profit margins. But perhaps that will make the battles even more piquant, and certainly not for the faint-hearted. 

At the device level, CES saw the emergence of both RIM and Motorola as serious contenders in the high end of the tablet market ($500+ price point without carrier subsidy) with the BlackBerry PlayBook and the Xoom, the first device to feature the first iteration of Honeycomb, the forthcoming tablet optimized version of Android. 

As we’ve reported separately, both devices looked extremely impressive and given both companies’ strong brand names and extensive sales channels will probably sell in high volumes when they finally fit the market in Q2 at the earliest. 

Motorola also looks set to enjoy a first-mover advantage on Honeycomb, though how long it will have this is open to question as other vendors will no doubt rush out models based on the operating system as quickly as possible. 

Still, despite their growing momentum and strong sales channels, neither RIM nor Motorola have a chance of unseating Samsung as the number one player in the high end of the market. 

Samsung is already enjoying huge momentum with the Galaxy tablet (not to mention its Galaxy smart phones) and will no doubt continue to leverage its control of all the key tablet components, including the SOC processor, NAND Flash memory, and LCD/OLED screens, to ramp up its share of the market. The company’s strong global carrier relationships and massive retail channels will also help Samsung solidify its leadership of the market.