Visitors checked out Toshiba’s Folio 100 during the IFA fair in Berlin yesterday.
(Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images)
‘Me-too’ tablets set their sights on the iPad
Visitors checked out Toshiba’s Folio 100 during the IFA fair in Berlin yesterday.
(Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images)
FRANKFURT — Samsung Electronics Co. and Toshiba Corp. unveiled tablet computers in Berlin yesterday, aiming to take market share from Apple Inc.’s iPad with their lower-priced “me-too’’ devices.
Toshiba said at the consumer electronics fair IFA that the recommended price for its Folio 100 tablet in Europe is $511, undercutting the iPad, which goes for about $643 in the region. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, which like Toshiba’s Folio will debut in Europe next month, said it will let phone operators determine the price.
“Looking at the iPad price, alternative tablets should be sold at below $300 to be appealing to consumers unless you have a strong brand to support the premium or a carrier to subsidize the hardware,’’ said Carolina Milanesi, a Gartner Inc. research director in the United Kingdom.
Apple has sold more than 3 million iPad units since its April 3 introduction. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company is “unlikely’’ to face a viable rival in the tablet market before 2011 and will continue to dominate the market in 2012, according to researcher ISuppli.
Apple will have a 61.7 percent market share in 2012 in terms of units sold, from 74.1 percent this year, it estimates. ISuppli expects the tablet PC market to grow about five-fold between 2010 and 2012 to 81.6 million units.
“Apple has a huge jump on everybody in terms of the momentum that they’ve built at this point,’’ said Rhoda Alexander, an analyst at El Segundo, Calif.-based ISuppli.
Research In Motion Ltd. is planning to introduce in November a tablet with a 9.7-inch screen and Wi-Fi capability, according to two people familiar with the company’s plans. Verizon Wireless and Google Inc. have discussed a tablet that would run on Android software, and Dell Inc. released its $299.99 Streak 5-inch tablet last month.
Sony Corp., the world’s third-largest maker of televisions, said yesterday it hasn’t decided yet whether to offer its own tablet computer.
It needs to be a “very appealing product that is going to be widely accepted, as opposed to a me-too product,’’ said Kazuo Hirai, the president of Tokyo-based Sony’s Networked Products & Services Group.
Hirai said 23 companies are planning to bring tablet computers to market, making a price war inevitable.
Samsung and Toshiba said they see strong demand and expect to garner sizable market shares in the years ahead.
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