Say it ain’t so; is Apple losing some of its overwhelming tablet dominance this side of the pond? According to Solutions Research Group (SRG), they are indeed. Word has it the 9.7-inch tablet is losing market share to smaller tablets such as RIM’s BlackBerry Playbook and Asus’ Transformer, etc. In SRG’s quarterly Digital Life Canada study they state that Apple’s Canadian tablet Q1 2012 market share is sitting around 56%, a huge drop from the over 80% in Q1 2011.
The study went on to point out that Canadians, as a whole, are shopping around with portability and price point in mind, rather than size and overall power. The numbers show that RIM’s PlayBook has captured 19% market share (up 4% from their last report), while tablets from Acer and Asus have 6% and 5% respectively.
Personally, and I could be an anomaly with this one, I have never actually owned a full-size tablet, or found the need to for that matter. I feel that carrying around a MacBook Pro and two powerful smartphones fulfills my needs to get things done, when I need to. Truth be told, while many Canadians take their smartphone with them almost everywhere they go, the study found on average Canadians only took their tablet with them 28% of the time when leaving the house. From a personal standpoint, carrying around a smaller tablet is just convenient; I mean, you try entertaining a 3-year-old in a restaurant for more than 20 minutes.
As of recent, though not officially confirmed, rumours have swirled that Apple has intentions of launching a smaller iteration of their famed (and game changing) iPad tablet. They have set their sights on the 7.5-inch market, with a rumoured name for the tablet being the “iPad Mini.” But, with all rumours, you can take that with a huge grain of salt.
What is foreseeable, however, is that when (and if) the aforementioned smaller iPad launches, it’ll do exactly what Apple wants it to do: take back ownership of the market, while of course blowing the competition out of the water, and that’s kind of a sad truth – I mean, there are some really good, powerful, and cheap tablets out there that do everything that iPad does and more, for a fraction of the price; but of course, popularity will always win.
What do you think? Does size matter when it comes to tablets? Could you not care less? Let us know in the comments!