SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Apple Inc. is expected to take the wraps off a new iPad tablet Wednesday as more rivals are flooding the fast-growing market with competing devices.
While few analysts expect anything revolutionary in terms of features and design, most believe that Apple /quotes/comstock/15*!aapl/quotes/nls/aapl (AAPL 348.17, -5.04, -1.43%) will have little trouble maintaining its market-dominating position for the near term. The iPad has quickly become a key business for Apple, surpassing the popular iPod in revenue contribution and on track to eclipse even the flagship Mac line of computers by next year.
“It’s one of their most important product lines with the iPhone in terms of being a sales and earnings driver,” said Mike Walkley of Canaccord Genuity.
The first iPad went on sale in April of last year. In the first nine months on the market, iPad sales totaled about 14.8 million units, generating revenue of more than $9.5 billion — about 15% of Apple’s total revenue for that periodaround 30 million units sold in 2011, and stay on top of the tablet market despite the coming onslaught of competing products. Offerings are due over the next few months from competitors such as Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!mmi/quotes/nls/mmi (MMI 29.49, -0.71, -2.35%) , Research In Motion Ltd. /quotes/comstock/15*!rimm/quotes/nls/rimm (RIMM 66.36, +0.16, +0.24%) /quotes/comstock/11t!e:rim (CA:RIM 64.80, +0.65, +1.01%) , Hewlett-Packard Co. /quotes/comstock/13*!hpq/quotes/nls/hpq (HPQ 42.98, -0.65, -1.49%) , Samsung Electronics, LG, Dell Inc. /quotes/comstock/15*!dell/quotes/nls/dell (DELL 15.39, -0.45, -2.81%) and Toshiba.
“All the other guys out there are all vying to get 10% of the market,” said Brian Marshall of Gleacher & Co. “Apple is the de facto standard.”
Estimates for the expected size of the tablet market vary widely, but recently have grown significantly. A report by Morgan Stanley in mid-February predicted a “bull-case scenario” of 100 million tablet shipments by 2012. The brokerage said it expected Apple to “remain the dominant player” through this year. Read more...
Source: marketwatch
“All the other guys out there are all vying to get 10% of the market,” said Brian Marshall of Gleacher & Co. “Apple is the de facto standard.”
Estimates for the expected size of the tablet market vary widely, but recently have grown significantly. A report by Morgan Stanley in mid-February predicted a “bull-case scenario” of 100 million tablet shipments by 2012. The brokerage said it expected Apple to “remain the dominant player” through this year. Read more...
Source: marketwatch
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