A Wide Range of Tablet PCs Coming in 2011

In 2010, the iPad reigned supreme as the tablet of choice for mobile gadget users. But the iPad and soon-to-arrive iPad 2 will have plenty of competition in 2011.

There’s no doubt that 2010 was “the year of the iPad.” Note that I didn’t call it, “the year of the tablet” — that would be an inaccurate and disingenuous moniker. The iPad completely dominated the tablet market in 2010 to the point where other manufacturers didn’t even dare to release competitive tablet models. The one-sided tablet market in 2010 was mainly due to the fact that, for some time now, the tech world has looked to Apple and only Apple to be the progenitors of tablet technology. It was a “rite of passage” that was bequeathed to the iPad, which is why 2010 turned out to be “the year of the iPad.”

But don’t expect 2011 to be the “year of the iPad 2.” In fact, there could be a major upheaval in the tablet market this year.

Enter the Xoom

While Apple raked in the profits from the iPad in 2010, Google and Motorola quietly prepared their Driod-powered Xoom tablet to be more advanced than the iPad, positioning it for release between the iPad and iPad 2. The Xoom has benefitted from the increasing popularity in Android/Honeycomb-fueled smartphones, and now has cleared a path in the marketplace for a successful launch of the Xoom, which will be purchased by Droid devoteés just as many iPhone users quickly bought up iPads upon their release in 2010.

It remains to be seen how the Xoom will stack up against the iPad, since it is being launched in the middle of the iPad lifecycle. Is it better than the iPad? PC Magazine seems to think so, but also admits that the new iPad 2 could easily trump some of Xooms advantages, such as its multi-tasking. In the end, however, consumers will compare the Xoom against the iPad 2 and not the iPad, meaning that Xoom is not well-positioned to decimate Apple’s tablet PC market share — for now.

The Phantom NoteSlate

A real game-changer in the tablet PC market for 2011 could be if the fabled NoteSlate makes its way onto the marketplace. The NoteSlate has been a bit of a phantom in the world of tablets: its remarkable e-ink-style screen and ability to custom draw the user interface is unlike anything we’ve seen from the iPad or Xoom. The NoteSlate is more like a Kindle, but can do much, much more. And with the proposed $99 price tag, it could easily become a price leader in the tablet market, hurting the expensive iPad and Xoom.

The main problem with the NoteSlate is that few people believe it will ever come to market.

Many tech analysts believe that the NoteSlate is far from going into production, and that the website is little more than a way to generate buzz about an idea for a tablet. In addition, the NoteSlate uses a stylus, and is not as netbook-like as the iPad and Xoom — it is more limited in its abilities. Thus, it may not attact a mainstream audience like the iPad.

Still, if (and that’s a big “if”) the NoteSlate debuts in 2011, it will take out a chunk of the iPad’s market dominance.

HP’s Losing Tablet Effort in 2011

In case you didn’t hear about it (and you probably didn’t), HP is going to roll out a line of tablets in 2011 as well. HP admits in press releases that waging war with the likes of the iPad and Xoom in 2011 is a losing battle, and that expectations are quite low for the HP tablets in the short-run.

But HP is taking the longview on the tablet market.

Sensing that the advent of the iPad in 2010 might have been the beginning of the end for the netbook market, HP, which invested heavily in netbook designs, may be simply staking its claim in the tablet market for the up-coming generation of computer users who may eschew laptops and netbooks for a tablet. All of this being said, HP will only garner a thin slice of the tablet market in 2011.

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A “Flat” Year

While 2010 was “the year of the iPad,” 2011 will indeed be “the year of the tablet,” thanks to all of these new tablet models popping up. What will be interesting to see is how the rise of the tablet in 2011 will affect laptop sales. Even with Apple getting ready to roll out a new MacBook, little is being said about laptops. In this way, 2011 might indeed be a “flat” year.

 

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