Steve Jobs's latest device does not have a camera; it does not support flash, global positioning system (GPS), multitasking, and cannot plug peripherals without a specialised adapter. And all these limitations make it short of being a magical device.
Now that you have seen Apple’s iPad, you also know where it falls short. While iPad enables users to browse the web, check emails, read books, play games, and listen to music from Apple's iTunes store, it still has some obvious shortcomings.
To list some: Steve Jobs’s latest device does not have a camera; it does not support flash, global positioning system (GPS), multitasking, and cannot plug peripherals without a specialised adapter. And all these limitations make it short of being a magical device.
On Thursday, a report by Gartner on Apple's iPad said: “iPad's colour screen and its iTunes heritage make it more of a general computing and media device than a dedicated e-book reader or full tablet PC.”
And those who have spotted these gaps in Apple’s tablet are rushing to fill them up. Not just the electronic gadget manufacturers but even semiconductor firms.
One such company is Freescale Semiconductor. The company has designed a processor to overcome most of these deficiencies and give ease of use to customers, along with widening features of nettabs, electronic book, or smartbook.
Vivek Tyagi, country manager (sales & marketing) of the company, said; “We have designed a processor, which will enable the service provider to fit in camera and flash player with the ability of multitasking on nettabs.”
With electronic books (e-books) set to sweep both the global and domestic markets with interest generated in the segment because of iPad, Tyagi expects tremendous response for its processors from the service providers.
The e-book revolution began in 2006 with Sony Corp’s Sony Reader, but the Japanese company fell behind Amazon.com when the latter came out with Kindle that had built-in wireless access. Barnes and Nobles Inc joined the race with its Nook and now Apple has stirred the market with iPad.
Sony has also upgraded its Sony Reader with Reader Daily Edition and tied up with The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post, to sell subscription on its device.
According to a report by DisplaySearch in 2009, e-book unit shipments are expected to grow from one million units in 2008 to more than 75 million units in 2018 with a value of around $3.8 billion. The research firm said the market drivers would be new e-books in the market, international expansion of e-book availability, anticipated price declines, and the electronic distribution of newspapers and textbooks.
Some time back, Sriram Peruvemba, vice-president of marketing for E Ink Corporation, Freescale’s partner in the development of integrated processors for e-books, had said their work would open up several new markets, including an e-newspaper and e-textbooks.
Though still a virgin market, Tyagi expects the tablet market in India to explode once the products are launched. He said the e-book market is growing at a fast rate and is expected to generate a $1billion opportunity for semiconductor companies by 2013.
"The growth will come from verticals such as display assembly, processor, wireless module, battery, and enclosure, among others,” said Tyagi.
Diptarup Chakraborti, principal research analyst of Gartner India, said iPad’s shortcomings notwithstanding, it would be difficult for its rivals to upset Jobs’s applecart.
“Products of Apple stand out in the market for their superior design, aura, and marketing strategy. Otherwise, there are many products in the market that are technologically better [than it] but are not able to compete with Apple,” he said.
Chakraborti said the e-book market in India will take some time to take off as it would be difficult to break into the conventional reading habit of Indians.
Consultancy firm Deloitte has predicted a manifold increase in tablet sales this year. It has forecast 'nettabs', thin tablets connected to the Internet through mobile networks, will sell in tens of millions of units in 2010-11.
Gartner predicts worldwide tablet sales will touch 10.5 million units by the end of 2010. Currently, e-book readers like Amazon's Kindle — the closest analogue to nettabs — are anticipated to have sold around 5 million units last year, according to street estimates.
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