As HP says “goodbye” to Web OS, Apple says “I told you so”
When it was announced about a year ago that HP was going to be purchasing Palm, I was actually quite hopeful about what that may mean on the mobile front. With Apple simply dominating the mobile phone landscape in with the iPhone, and even more so in the tablet market with the iPad, I figured they could use some competition. Yes, many other companies out there have tried their luck at making a possible iPad killer (aka Android tablet), but all of them seemed to have missed the mark. That is not necessarily an opinion, but more of an observation from looking at the numbers. The most hyped up of those, the Motorola Xoom, even struggled to sell, despite the supposed more advanced specs compared to the iPad. Android has had a tough time, to say the least.
It may seem strange that I am rooting for Apple to get dethroned by another tablet maker, but that’s not what I’m rooting for at all. In fact, quite the opposite. What I am always hoping for, though, is some good ole’ fashioned competition. Competition is a good thing, especially in this case. It forces the big guy (re: Apple) to constantly revamp their product to not only keep up with the rest of the market, but surpass it. If there were no other reasonable options out there, Apple could easily stand pat and make only minor improvements to their products and assume consumers will continue to buy their products simply because they have an image of a partially eaten piece of fruit on their product. Well guess what Apple…that ain’t how we roll!
As much as I love Apple, I am terribly afraid of them falling into this trap, especially given the insane success of the iPad, and only a whimper from its competitors. What has just gone down today, with HP declaring the end of Web OS, is another step towards Apple staking even a stronger claim towards being the king of tablets.
So what does this mean for the rest of the tablet landscape? I think one thing is for sure: everyone else has to step up their game. And by “everyone else”, I am explicitly pointing at you, Google…especially after your monstrous purchase of Motorola. There have been mumblings that this purchase was only for the purpose of adding to their desk full of patents so that they can compete with Apple in the courtroom. There may be some validity to that…but I feel like $12.5 is a lot of money (even for Google) to spend simply for a few patents. But heck, what do I know?
Or what about you, Microsoft? You keep on saying your up to something special. Well sorry to break it to you, but Windows Phone 7 has not really caught on with the general public, and we haven’t seen a true competitor to the iPad from you. Waiting on the release of Windows 8, I presume?
All that aside, the clock is ticking on these other companies to come up with something that will challenge the iPad not only internally, but also in the battle for market share. That said, we continue to see Apple release improvements on all of their devices. The question is, are they truly drastic enough to be worthy of a true “upgrade”? In other words, if Apple was put up against the ropes by another tablet manufacturer, it sure would be interesting to see what Steve Jobs & co. would be forced into pushing out next.
Here’s to some much needed competition.
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- mginsburg-blog posted this