Hewlett-Packard Co’s (HP) TouchPad, which is being axed by the company, was the top-selling tablet computer in the US after Apple Inc’s iPad in the first 10 months of the year, market research company NPD Group said on Tuesday.
The TouchPad accounted for 17 percent of the 1.2 million non-Apple tablets sold in the US from January through last month, NPD said, edging out Galaxy tablets from South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, which had a 16 percent market share.
Taiwan’s Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) accounted for 10 percent of the non-Apple tablets sold during the period, followed by Motorola’s Xoom tablets and Taiwan’s Acer Inc (宏碁), each with a 9 percent market share, NPD said.
Apple sold 11.12 million iPads last quarter alone.
HP, citing disappointing sales, announced on Aug. 18 it was discontinuing the TouchPad — just seven weeks after it hit the market — and abandoning the webOS operating system acquired from Palm that powered the device.
Two weeks later, HP said it planned one last production run of the TouchPad, which became a hot seller following a price cut from US$499 to just US$99 and the announcement that it was being abandoned.
NPD vice president of industry analysis Stephen Baker said there were US tablet buyers interested in a device other than an iPad.
“Seventy-six percent of consumers who purchased a non-Apple tablet didn’t even consider the iPad, an indication that a large group of consumers are looking for alternatives, and an opportunity for the rest of the market to grow their business,” Baker said.
“The market is filled with long-time personal computer and phone brands, as well as low-cost entrants,” he said.
“With a limited amount of shelf space and challenges in overcoming the iPad’s first-mover strength, not all brands will be successful,” he said.
One that is expected to be successful is US online retail giant Amazon, which began selling its own tablet computer last week, the Kindle Fire.
A survey by ChangeWave Research of 3,043 North American consumers published on Monday found that 65 percent of future tablet buyers plan to purchase an iPad, but 22 percent said they would buy a Kindle Fire.
ChangeWave said the survey results should have other tablet makers worried.
“With the exception of the Samsung Galaxy Tab (four percent) no other manufacturer is garnering more than one percent of future tablet demand among consumers,” said ChangeWave, a division of The 451 Group.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last