Apple Inc’s iPad and other tablets may not sell as well as analysts had estimated as customers cut back spending on new technology or opt for new smartphones and laptops instead, according to Rodman & Renshaw LLC.
Apple, which sold 4.19 million iPads last quarter, may have trouble hitting some analysts’ estimates of 6 million sold in the fourth quarter, said analyst Ashok Kumar, who predicts Cupertino, California-based Apple may sell as few as 5 million of the touch-screen tablets.
Tablet computers, which let customers watch videos and read digital magazines and books, are still a “tweener” niche with limited capabilities that might prevent consumers from adopting the technology as quickly as some industry analysts had forecast, Kumar said.
Samsung Electronics Co is cutting its planned production by about 50 percent for the Galaxy Tab after poor sales, he said, citing discussions with suppliers.
“It’s a nice-to-have product, for those of us who don’t have a budget, but is it a must-have product? I don’t think so,” said New York-based Kumar, who rates the shares “market outperform” and doesn’t own any.
Apple has allowed other retailers, including Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc and Wal-Mart Stores Inc, to sell the device in the US as it looks for ways to increase sales. The company had captured 95 percent of the global tablet market in the third quarter, according to researcher Strategy Analytics.
Research In Motion Ltd, which makes the BlackBerry line of smartphones, will release a tablet for less than US$500 in North America in the first quarter to compete with the iPad. Dell Inc has released its Streak tablet with a five-inch screen. Motorola Inc is also planning a tablet release early next year, co-chief executive officer Sanjay Jha has said.
Trudy Muller, an Apple spokeswoman, declined to comment.
The Galaxy Tab has only been available in some markets for a few days and it’s too early to make predictions about sales, said Kim Titus, spokesman for Samsung’s US business.
“We do expect this device to be a very hot holiday device,” he said.
Samsung will be a strong rival to Apple and Taiwanese tablet makers next year, a researcher at the Topology Research Institute (拓墣產業研究所) said in a recent interview.
“Samsung will be a powerful competitor in the 2011 tablet market because of its cost-down production ability and its long-term cooperation with telecom carriers worldwide,” Ryan Lee (李易聰) said at the Taipei-based research institute.
The Galaxy Tab, with a seven-inch screen and the Android 2.2 operating system, will go on sale this month in Taiwan in partnership with Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), while Apple has not yet launched its iPad in Taiwan.
Samsung, in addition to the Android Marketplace, which is an online store for Android-based cellphone users to download software, has also provided users with similar services from its own applications store since last year, which shows the company’s insight into the significance of developing its own mobile content, Lee said.
Although local tablet makers such as Acer Inc (宏碁) and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) are good at reducing the cost of their products and are not targeting the same high-end consumers that the iPad is aimed at, current local products do not yet offer content or applications that are attractive to consumers, Lee said.
Another Taiwanese vendor, First International Computer Inc (大眾) — the latest entry into the market — which launched its first Windows-based tablet last week, has forecast that a total of 100,000 tablet computers would be sold in Taiwan next year, including Windows-based systems, Android-based systems and iPads.
However, Lee said the licensing fees for using the Windows operating system, usually four to five times higher than the Android system, might result in fewer Taiwanese computer makers being willing to use the Windows system for their tablets.
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