Apple fans hoping for an iPad 3 this year should just cool their jets, one analyst advises. There’s “no rush” to unveil a new version as rival devices stumble left and right. As Simon & Garfunkel might say: Slow down, you move too fast.
“In our view, Apple should be in no rush,” JP Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz told investors Friday. There’s no need as no real tablet rival exists. “The other tablet entrants have stumbled so far, and that trend-line could persist deep into 2012,” Moskowitz writes.
That belief was reinforced Thursday, when PlayBook maker Research in Motion announced it had shipped just 200,000 of its tablets during the last quarter. Not only is that far fewer than the 9.25 million iPads Apple sold during the same period, RIM failed to even match its previous quarter, when it shipped 500,000 PlayBooks. As in the case of the HP TouchPad, the PlayBook will likely be discounted in an effort to get the tablets off the shelves of anxious retailers.
But what about the tablet from Sony? Some expected it to challenge the iPad. Once again, the iPad’s look-and-feel is the standard against which every other tablet must measure up. “To us, Sony’s tablet lack’s the refined, sleek feel of the iPad and its bezel-like back is not user-friendly,” the analyst writes.
But the real stumbling block for rivals is Android. Moskowitz believes Google is better off sticking with powering phones.
“Lastly, the Sony tablet runs on the Android O/S, which has failed to garner as much interest in tablets as it has in smartphones.” In other words, for rivals to succeed against the iPad, they should probably ditch Android. All of which should make Apple pretty happy. Or, in the words of Simon & Garfunkel: “Feelin’ Groovy.”
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
13 responses to “Analyst: ‘No Rush’ on iPad 3 as Rival Tablet Stumble”
Yeah!! It is just a matter of time…Apple is superior, they have their issues, but for the user HEY who cares what their internal politics are. They produce quality!! Proven over and over again…just look at the numbers – that says it all!!
Why would anyone think it was happening this year? Haven’t you guys reported numerous times about it having the A6 processor, and that won’t even be ready until 2012, it’s simple math.
We all knew the iPad 3 was NOT going to arrive this year.
Everything is a rumor.
I think Apple should not let anything by. Apple should release the new iPad as soon as possible. Never mind the fact that no competitor has arrived. The fact is, a competitor CAN arrive and when it does, it opens the floodgates for more and more competitors. Apple can own this space for years if they can manage to put out the best product possible with every release.
I think Apple should not let anything by. Apple should release the new iPad as soon as possible. Never mind the fact that no competitor has arrived. The fact is, a competitor CAN arrive and when it does, it opens the floodgates for more and more competitors. Apple can own this space for years if they can manage to put out the best product possible with every release.
Apple hasn’t even announced the iPhone 5 or 4S, so it’s NO surprise that all the speculation about the “iPad 3” was just that. Everyone knows it doesn’t “exist” until Apple makes an announcement. Apple wins because they’re selling “iPad’s”, NOT tablets! Everyone else is competing for the bottom (less than 30% profits & falling).