Poll: Is Android destined to eclipse the iPad, too?
The Samsung Galaxy Tab -- the first mass market Android tablet -- has landed on shore but it is only the beginning of a tidal wave of Android tablets that are going to come to market in 2011. Will these tablets overwhelm the Apple iPad, which currently has over 90% market share in the tablet market, simply because of their sheer numbers?
With multiple manufacturers and wireless carriers dedicated to the Android platform in the smartphone market, Android has quickly zoomed past Apple's iPhone in market share of that segment of the technology sector. As a result, many are expecting and assuming the same phenomenon to happen with tablets.
However, there are those who will argue that while the OS for these tablets has been adapted from smartphones using Apple iOS and Google Android, the market segment itself is much different than smartphones.
For one, the smartphone market was already growing rapidly and had several major players when Apple arrived with the iPhone in 2007 and changed the rules. The tablet market, on the other hand, had almost completely dried up before Apple gave people a new reason to buy tablets in early 2010. Now, the company has sold over seven million of them in six months and created a wave of demand for buyers who want to use the iPad either in place of or as a compliment to other computing devices.
Which argument do you agree with? Answer the poll and then jump into the discussion to explain why.