[3GScottishUser]

Apple’s iPad will struggle to keep up with its Android and Windows competitors in the tablet market place, according to a Dell executive.

Dell's global head of marketing Andy Lark raised his concerns over Apple’s high prices in a recent interview with website CIO Australia.

He claimed that the iPad was not accessible compared with tablets using the Android or Windows operating system, especially when accessories are added.

Lark said: ‘Apple is great if you’ve got a lot of money and live on an island. It’s not so great if you have to exist in a diverse, open, connected enterprise, simple things become quite complex.’

An iPad with a keyboard, a mouse and a case will currently cost an average of $1600 – a price Lark branded as ‘not feasible’.

He added: ‘Longer term, open, capable and affordable will win, not closed, high price and proprietary.'

http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/News/11252/Apple_iPad_will_fail_says_dell.aspx

Personally I think Andy Lark is right as the history of the computing industry has proved over the last three decades.

Discuss.....

[Hands0n]

Bill, I know you like to be controversial, and dont like Apple, but really ... This??? :)

People have been predicting Apple's ultimate demise for roughly as long as they have existed. I'm still waiting to see it. What is far more likely to go down the pan is the traditional PC paradigm that has persisted for those 30 years. It cannot survive in the long run and has pretty much done it's time. As the human interaction with computing changes we will see the paradigm shift away from what is currently mainstream. Various technical capabilities are coming together to bring this about.

As to Apple's prices, I would refer you to Samsung's attempt at a MacBook Air which cost £50 more than the original product. This basically illustrates that good premium high tech equipment has a cost. No amount of fudging the figures by substituting inferior hardware will do justice to the argument. As it is, Dell have nothing comparable to offer. Their business is at the Fisher Price end of the consumer market.

[miffed]

I think we need to define "failure"?

Last time I looked there were sales of 15,000,000 iPad 1's , and iPad 2's are selling faster than Apple can make them !

Perhaps when someone (anyone) else starts to see a similar level of success it will time to start talking about the iPad losing it's crown , but at the moment all we have seen is "big talk" from the usual suspects , and when called to prove themselves (a la Galaxy Tab ) they fall flat on their face and end up trying to give the bloody things away at 50% or the original RRP !

Come on ? Seriously until someone puts a worthy competitor INTO STORES & CUSTOMERS HANDS (mythical "coming soon" products don't cut it !) , it is nothing short of ridiculous to suggest the iPad is going to be toppled just yet ?

[miffed]

"an iPad with a mouse and keyboard would cost $1600"

Oh dear !

[Hands0n]

"... not comparable in price to Windows tablets ..."

Let's see now. Asus latest Windows tablet £999. Yea, I suppose Dell have a point. That price from Asus, arguably one of the budget priced manufacturers, doesn't at all compare with iPad pricing. Maybe he's suggesting that Apple raise their prices to match these other rival product prices.

Isn't it comical that these repetitive anti-Apple diatribes consistently fail the Litmus test? Consistently.

[Ben]

"an iPad with a mouse and keyboard would cost $1600"

Oh dear !
That just about sums it up really. A complete idiot who doesn't know what he's talking about.

Unlike the iPhone, which has to pack a certain amount of 'high end' punch to be a useful iOS device, the iPad has a lot more flexibility. Apple could easily have a range suitable for all wallets and therefore continue to completely own this segment (which it created, lets not forget that). I foresee plastic backed iPads a la MacBook being the 'starter tablet'. If Apple want it, they could own the tablet market like they do the personal music player market.

I think it's a shame that they've conceded a lot of the mobile phone market by not diversifying their range. But Apple will always be an experience company first and foremost, and if the experience isn't right and the margins aren't there then they wont play ball. In a way you've got to respect them for not 'flogging a dead horse' every time they get a hit, like Moto did with the RAZR!

[3GScottishUser]

I think the point that is being missed is that to become truly mass market consumer IT product history has proved that the standard has to be one which is open.

It was not until the IBM PC was reverse engineered by the guys who formed Compaq that the PC became affordable and moved form a business tool to a box in every home.

The same applies to Apple's tablet. It's a nice product and throught their history Apple have been very good at spotting innovation and trends and packaging them into high priced, high quality devices. But all have had a limited lifespan as major product lines as the open source competition has provided the same for vastly less outlay.

One has to remember that tablets have been around for some years. I remember my IT lecturer at college in 2002 showing off an HP laptop with a rotating screen and it had most of the facilities the iPad has now. Apple's trick has been to repackage the concept, add some brand credibility, extend the app store concept and factor in styling, heavyweight marketing and decent quality build and user experience. That has so far delivered them a nice income but there is nothing unique re the iPad and Apple know they need to sell lots of product and make hay before the competetion produce a similiar user experience at far lower cost.

In a short time the tablet market will be awash with devices that look and feel like an iPad but will cost a fraction of the price. They will have an OS that will allow for innovation without the need to refer to a gatekeeper with a high margin profit motive.

The computing business is changing for sure and the big players are shifting to take account of users changing habbits.

The tablet has it's work cut out competing with netbooks, kindles, smartphones, etc. It's not a product that presently would compete with a traditional laptop, it's a luxury additon to the range of IT facilities wealthy folks have at their disposal. That maket is limited but lucrative and fertile for Apple to exploit for now.

[Hands0n]

I do not think that I could disagree more.

Other tablets: there is no as successful alternative to the iPad, yet. Others are hot on Apple's heels using exactly the same format. The Windows tablet form referred to has consistently remained niche. It persists only because Microsoft have nothing else to offer. The full Windows experience on a tablet is [very obviously] not what people want.

Prices: To date, the iPad is the cheapest "proper" tablet device. Those manufacturers who jumped the gun with Android 2.x are not endorsed by Google. Samsung and Dell only got Google's blessing by creating oversized Android smartphones. The very first true Android tablet, the Motorola Xoom, is more expensive than its iPad counterpart.

Mass Market: Right now Apple's iPad is the tablet market, period. 2011 sees new entrants that have yet to establish their credentials. I have one particular model on pre-order. Apple will later become one player in the overall market, and it is very likely to be a significant one indefinitely. Do not underestimate their ecosystem. The only other manufacturer close in those terms is HP.

Limited lifespan: I cannot believe what is being suggested. Let me just say "iPod". That supposedly high priced item that had become almost a commodity item in any household across the entire planet.

Mass Market: Apple have never wanted to licence their technology. To do so would introduce the same fragmentation seen in the PC world. Even Google is looking at how to take steps to prevent the very apparent fragmentation in it's Anfroid OS that, for the user, creates a lottery experience in terms of updates to the OS. HP will also be very unlikely to licence it's Palm acquisition, preferring to create a coherent and powerful ecosystem like Apple. That is what people very obviously want, which is why the sales figures are so good.

Wealthy folks: Yet another misconception. There are routes to Market that make Apple's product wholly accessible to the masses. And do you know what? The great unwashed are lapping this stuff up as quickly as the outlets can stock it. sure, those with higher disposable incomes will buy outright. I've several times seen those from the local Travelling Community buy their iPhones and iPads using bundles of £50 notes. But lots of other ordinary folk resort to more traditional means of financing their little luxuries.

Competing with laptops: In 2010 the retail outlets themselves have stated that the iPad had decimated sales of laptops and netbooks. I even see iPads displacing these in the workplace where I work. In the street too as other industries pick up on the benefits. At several trade shows, where laptops were used before, the show staff carry iPads in their jobs. Make no mistake, the tablet paradigm as developed by Apple and being picked up by other OS and hardware manufacturers is the way forward. It is not the future but the right now.

It really is time for the Apple haters to stop barking at the moon.