Despite being labeled the first real competitor to the iPad, it seems Amazon’s 7-inch Kindle Fire tablet still has a long way to go before it can lure tablet users away from Apple’s device. Although it seemed to be incredibly popular when it launched last year, largely thanks to that attractive $199 price tag, Apple CEO Tim Cook says the Kindle Fire, and other “limited function tablets,” had no impact on iPad sales whatsoever.
When probed by one analyst during the company’s quarterly earnings call about the impact budget tablets have had on the iPad, Cook highlighted that Apple sold a record 15.4 million iPads during the last quarter, and declared that the company does not consider “limited function tablets and e-readers to be in the same category as the iPad.”
We strongly believe in optimizing applications from day one to take advantage of the larger canvas. There are only a few hundred apps designed for the competition, versus more than 170,000 apps designed specifically for iPad. People who want an iPad won’t settle for a limited function tablet.
And of course, the Kindle Fire isn’t the first device that has attempted to steal some of the iPad’s market share. Since its release in 2009, Apple’s tablet has influenced a whole host of slates powered by Android, BlackBerry, and the webOS operating system.
But the HP TouchPad, which was discontinued by HP last summer and sold off for as little as $99 in a fire sale, proves that no one really wants just any old tablet — they want an iPad. And Apple isn’t about to let its popularity slip away. Cook announced that the company plans to “continue to innovate like crazy” in the tablet market to ensure its device remains the world’s best-selling tablet.
[via MacRumors]
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
