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发帖数: 19471 | 1 简单来说，就是iPad到目前为止没有竞争对手。
Tablet War Is an Apple Rout
H-P Cuts Price on Its iPad Rival by 20%; Apple Sells Out but Rivals Combat H
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By IAN SHERR
People don't have tablet fever; it seems they simply have a mania for iPads.
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Associated Press
The Hewlett Packard TouchPad
.The latest evidence: Hewlett-Packard Co. is dropping the price of its Touch
Pad tablet by 20% little more than a month after it hit stores, as the compu
ter giant tries to goose sales of its answer to Apple Inc.'s iPad.
H-P, Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and Research In Motion Ltd. have all ju
mped into the tablet market this year, trying to close the gap with Apple.
The electronics giant created a multi-billion-dollar business last year when
it launched the iPad—and has since seen its profits and market value swell
as others have tried to keep pace.
Viacom and Cablevision have settled a lawsuit over streaming content over i
Pads, but the argument over who can provide media to consumers is far from o
ver, WSJ's Sam Schechner reports. (Photo: AP Photo.)
.Rivals have been routed so far. Motorola cut the price of its Xoom tablet a
fter its February launch, released a cheaper model and warned shipments will
decline this quarter. RIM's PlayBook was delayed until April and still isn'
t being offered for sale by the two biggest U.S. wireless carriers.
Samsung Electronics Co., which was the quickest to market an iPad rival and
has shipped millions of tablets based on Google Inc.'s Android software, is
now embroiled in a patent dispute with Apple that threatens sales of its Gal
axy Tab in most of Europe.
Apple, meanwhile, says it is having difficulty keeping up with demand and se
lling every iPad it can manufacture. Five months after its release, its iPad
2 can be hard to find in retail stores. The company said it shipped 9.3 mil
lion iPads in the June-ended quarter.
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.An Apple spokeswoman reiterated an earlier comment from Chief Financial Off
icer Peter Oppenheimer, saying the company is "thrilled" with the iPad's mom
entum.
The consumer electronics giant has sold 28.7 million iPads since it was firs
t launched in April 2010. Estimates of Apple's share of the tablet market va
ry but some researchers say it has about two-thirds of shipments, though the
y acknowledge it could be higher.
One sign of Apple's dominance: Rivals discuss how many tablets they are ship
ping, but don't disclose how many units are actually being purchased by cust
omers. Motorola says it shipped 690,000 Xoom tablets since its launch in Feb
ruary, and RIM says it has shipped 500,000 PlayBooks between their April lau
nch and the end its first quarter in May. Motorola and RIM declined to comme
nt.
Samsung, which in January said it had shipped two million Galaxy Tabs to wir
eless carriers and retailers around the world since its release in September
, has stopped disclosing shipments all together.
As some industry watchers put it: There are more iPads rival tablets sitting
in warehouses and stores than current demand for those products, and that's
prompting manufacturers to cut prices to move inventory.
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Associated Press
Apple has sold nearly 29 million iPad tablets since its debut last year. Abo
ve, a customer uses an iPad to order at a restaurant in Torrance, Calif.
."The numbers that we have reported are probably higher than what have actua
lly been sold to customers, which is why you see companies like H-P trying t
o lower prices to move what's in the channel," said Tom Mainelli, an analyst
at research firm IDC. On Wednesday, H-P cut the price of its entry-model To
uchPad to $399.99, so it now costs roughly $100 less than a comparable iPad.
The TouchPad runs the webOS operating system created by smartphone maker Pa
lm, which H-P acquired.
H-P took its time developing the device, and Chief Executive Leo Apotheker p
romised the TouchPad would be "perfect." Reviewers didn't feel that way. The
y complained about sub-standard hardware features and glitchy software.
Stephen DiFranco, a senior vice president in H-P's computer business, said i
n an online message Wednesday that the lower price will allow "both HP and o
ur channel partners to be even more price competitive in the marketplace."
An H-P spokesman declined to say how many TouchPads have been sold, saying t
he company "continually evaluates pricing for its products."
Decisions, Decisions
See specs on the IdeaPad and other e-readers and tablets on the market.
View Interactive
..H-P's price cut also marks a shift in strategy. Samsung tried to outmuscle
the iPad with beefy processors but keep prices in line with Apple's machine
. Motorola priced its Xoom, the first to run a tablet version of Android, at
a premium to Apple's iPad—and was later forced to cut prices. RIM priced t
he PlayBook like the iPad even though its seven-inch screen is smaller.
Analysts say H-P is now conceding the obvious: consumers won't pay the same
price for an imitator, even a well-appointed one, as they will for the origi
nal. That has left the market for tablets split in two.
"There's an iPad market," said Tim Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategie
s, "and then there's everyone else."
.
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