In its first month of availability, the iPad has become a runaway bestseller for Apple, moving better than one million units to date and prompting industry analysts to estimate between four and five million sales before the conclusion of 2010.
Indeed, the market for Apple’s revolutionary tablet is booming. And it’s only a matter of time before another tech giant steps up to the plate and challenges Apple in the market it dominates presently as a lone power.
Following word from Sony last week that it may enter the tablet pool – but only after first assessing whether there is “adequate consumer interest” to make a Sony tablet computer a worthwhile venture – we’re now hearing rumblings that Research In Motion (makers of the BlackBerry), may similarly be interested in taking on Apple.
Although the BlackBerry has failed to unseat the iPhone as the most dominant brand in the smartphone space, a potential “BlackBerry Tablet” could resonate with many while possibly sparking a renewed interest in the handset – which would be pertinent to the tablet given that, according to widespread speculation, the device on the drawing board would offer no mobile networking. Instead, the “BlackBerry Tablet” would connect to a BlackBerry phone through Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
If the tablet market is to prove the future playground of mobile marketers, the digital advertising world is in luck, as the iPad may soon be joined by competing tablets that could spark an even bigger tablet boom than the one presently underway.
