Whatever Happened to the iPad Rivals of 2010?

Back in August of 2010, it was clear that Apple’s iPad–which had gone on sale on April 3rd–was a gigantic, game-changing hit. The rest of the industry was scrambling to respond, and there had already been a steady stream of announcements, pre-announcements, sneak peeks, and rumors, along with a few products that had to tell the truth shipped. I chose that month to round up as many of them as possible. I called them “iPadversaries,” and published a story with brief profiles of 32 of them.

The world continued to change

And at that time the world continued to change. Some of the products I wrote about shipped in so so the form I’d described. Others evolved furthermore, or failed to show up at all. Windows, which was supposed to provide meaningful competition to the iPad, didn’t. Scads of tablets based on Android arrived, without any of them being a clear-cut success. And two of the most interesting rumors of August 2011–a WebOS tablet and a BlackBerry one–turned into the two highest-profile flops to date.

Availability: NowOS: Android 1.6Screen size: 4.8″Price: $299 What else: Paris-based Archos has been making tablets since we were supposed to call them portable media centers, and the three Archos products in this list all shipped well previously the iPad did. This one, with its 5″ display and Android OS, feels like a Gallic cousin of the Dell Streak.More info: Ubergizmo gave it a semi-positive review.

Availability: NowOS: Android 1.5Screen size: 7″Price: $199What else: This Archos Android tablet has a bigger screen than the 5 nevertheless costs a hundred bucks less. It runs an even older version of Android.More info: Engadget actually didn’t care for it.

Availability: NowOS: Windows 7 Starter EditionScreen size: 8.9″Price: $549.99What else: As usual, Archos already has a device out in a product category that larger companies are for all that talking about–Windows 7 slates. It has a resistive screen with no multi-touch gestures.More info: UMPC Portal’s review says it’s not anywhere nearly as good as it looks.

Availability: Early 2011 OS: Android Screen size: 10″ Price: $399 to $499? What else: EeePads are running late–at one point Asus was supposed to have one ready for July 2010 availability. The EP101TC may on the whole be a work in progress: It was originally going to run Windows Embedded Compact, nevertheless is now an Android machine.More info: Engadget has a brief write-up.

Availability: Early 2011 OS: Windows 7 Screen size: 12″Price: $399 to $499? What else: According to Engadget, Asus has demoed the EP121 with “a super sleek keyboard docking station, which will be used to turn the tablet into an ultraportable laptop of sorts.”More info: Here’s Engadget.

Availability: Now, at Kmart OS: Android 2.1 Screen size: 7″ Price: $150 What else: Did I mention it costs $150? As well, it seems to have an unauthorized version of the Android Marketplace.More info: The Android Blog tried one and wasn’t specifically knocked out.

Availability: UnknownOS: Android 2.2?Screen size: nine inches or thereabouts?Price: UnknownWhat else: We’ll know more as Best Buy’s CTO tweets it, to all appearances–this product from Best Buy’s house brand hasn’t been announced, nevertheless he keeps teasing his followers with tidbits.More info: Lilliputing writes about the gizmo here.

Availability: First quarter of 2011OS: AndroidScreen size: 7″Price: UnknownWhat else: As you’d expect from Cisco, it has a business focus, does video conferencing, and turns into a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone when you stick it in its dock. For my money, this might be the iPadversary with the most promise.More info: Here’s Cisco’s Cius announcement.

Availability: Now OS: Android 1.6 with the naked eye; 2.2 later this year Screen size: 5″ Price: $249.99 with a two-year AT&T contract; $549.99 a la carteWhat else: You could make the case that the Streak is an iPhone alternative, not an iPad rival–with its 5″ screen, it’s pocketable, and it has built-in 3G voice capability. Nevertheless Dell is pitching it as a data device you can make phone calls on, not a phone you can do data on.More info: I find it kind of intriguing.

Availability: This yearOS: Windows 7Screen size: UnknownPrice: UnknownWhat else: This is one of numerous Windows 7 slates promised for 2010 in a July Steve Ballmer speech. Ballmer said that some of these devices would have keyboards and/or pens, and some would be aimed at consumers during others would target big businesses–however he didn’t say anything about specific products and their features.

Availability: Now OS: Android 1.6 Screen size: It’s got two of ‘em: a 10.1″ LCD touchscreen and a 9.7″ E-Ink touchscreen. It as well has a stylus. Price: $539 What else: The eDGe is a “dualbook”–an e-reader on its left side and a touch tablet on its right side. It’s got its own app store and e-book store.More info: Engadget didn’t find it terribly satisfying.

Availability: Early SeptemberOS: Windows 7 Home Premium with proprietary layerScreen size: 11.6″Price: $599What else: Engaget tried one and thought the display was crummy nevertheless was favorably impressed by what it called the “Connect Four” interface.More info: The ExoPC site is here

Availability: This yearOS: Windows 7Screen size: UnknownPrice: UnknownWhat else: Another product from the long list promised by Steve Ballmer last month. Unlike many of the companies planning to jump into the slate PC game, Fujitsu is an old hand at making keyboardless Windows computers.

Availability: Fall 2010OS: Windows 7Screen size: 8.9″Price: At one point, it was allegedly going to start at $549What else: The star of Steve Ballmer’s CES 2010 keynote went into mysterious limbo and will now supposedly ship later this year as a product for large companies.More info: Here’s a video demo, made back when HP was not only willing to talk about this product nevertheless was lavishing it with hype.

Availability: Rumor has it that it’ll ship in the first quarter of 2011OS: WebOSScreen size: UnknownPrice: Unknown What else: HP hasn’t said much other than that it intends to build a tablet device using its newly-acquired Palm WebOS. “PalmPad” is the rumored name; additional gossip has it that it will use a Wacom-style digital pen to permit note-taking. More info: PCWorld’s Tony Bradley tried his hand at comparing HP’s Windows and WebOS devices.

The time in 2013

and at the time in 2013, Apple will not lose its unit sale dominance in the tablet and the NEW market apple will create until the start of '16

it's not a fatality if Apple will dominate, it's because all others computers companies gave up to sell valued products to people.

Dream on. I suspect that the Android tablet folks will in the long run resort to what they do with the iPhone. They will lump EVERY single Android tablet at the same time, and collectively claim that they outsell the iPad, so that Apple is somehow in second place.

It only takes one company to step up and take the time to build an amazing product to dominate the tablet market. Unfortunately, in doing so far the only company in the world to do that has been Apple.

I guess if you want to look at it that way, you're right – Apple iOS dominates 100% of the share of the Apple hardware market, and Apple hardware dominates 100% of the iOS market.

Hardware perspective

From a hardware perspective, Apple [probably] dominates any one vendor of hardware for a phone or tablet, however unless your point is that "Apple sells more smartphones than Nokia", your argument is irrelevant.

As far as saying "everyone else is so far behind the iPad", I suggest giving an android tablet a fair chance, hands-on at your local electronics B&M – you might be surprised at what they can do.

My Archos 5 is the only tablet I have hung onto afterwards going through about half a dozen 7-inchers, most of them much more advanced: Archos 7o, Huawei Ideos S7, Viewsonic Viewpad 7, Wintec Filemate light, Cruz Reader, and Pandigital Novel – cut my Android hacking teeth on it, nevertheless it started exactly according to instructions disintegrating.

The truth really awesome to use on this thing

Also shockingly enough Windows 7 is to tell the truth really awesome to use on this thing. I was shocked to see how then designed the OS was for using nothing however your fingers or the stylus that ships with the Slate device. As such I think Microsoft in effect has a strong chance at coming onto the market and thoroughly dominating the mid to high end tablet market.