PC Maker Lenovo just released their first would-be iPad killer, the IdeaPad K1. It is, of course, a piece of junk, with This Is My Next calling it “chunky and cheap-feeling” with software that is “unstable to the point of being unusable.”
You’d think that would damp anyone’s aspirations in the tablet game: HP pulled out of the tablet market despite garnering much more positive reviews for the TouchPad. Nevertheless, Lenovo not only thinks that Apple will lose dominance of the tablet market, but that Lenovo itself will become “one of the strongest… players in this area.” Now that’s pie-eyed optimism.
Basically, Lenovo’s plan is this: while Apple dominates the high-end tablet market, Lenovo intends on focusing on all tiers, including the mid and low-end. They’ll do this with cheaper hardware and by using Android and Windows.
What I think is laughable here is the assumption that there even is a tablet market. We’ve seen three of the biggest names in the business — Motorola, HP and RIM — try to make a dent in the iPad’s dominance, and the only one that wasn’t a total piece of crap was the HP TouchPad… and even that didn’t sell until it was priced at $99.
Maybe people do want tablets that aren’t the iPad… but the one thing that is for certain is that gadget makers are having a really hard time duplicating the iPad’s formula, a perfect fusion between software and hardware. Lenovo’s probably right that eventually, iOS won’t be the dominant platform in the tablet market… but with a two year headstart and not a single decent Android tablet on the immediate horizon, that’s years away.
