Are Tablets a Dying Breed?

Are Tablets a Dying Breed?

 

 

We would be hard pressed to give an exact answer on this common question but we do see that many major manufacturers are “giving up” on this category. More specifically, we are seeing a decline in profitability due to declining interest in the tablet market. The R&D speed has slackened and manufacturers are discontinuing well known tablet models such as the Venue slates when Dell decided to put an end to tablet line ups.

The reason for declining tablet sales compared to smart phones is because people tend to hold onto their tablets a lot longer than they do with smart phones. The tablet market was young and full of questions for manufacturers. They were unsure how often consumers would “upgrade” to the newest model. The demographic behavior in this field seems to be more visible now. For many manufacturers, tablet development and efforts are actually quite underwhelming because of little returns.

Another reason why tablet’s are on their way out is because of over-saturation. Consumers are demanding less and less as there are already a ton of choices and there is only so much a tablet can actually do. This was the main reason Dell decided to end the Venue tablet’s life.

The Dell Venue 8 7000 was one of the best high end Android tablet of the time. It still is today. IT features OLED displays, and a RealSense camera. In all honesty, despite usage of tablets in multimedia senses and for other personal usages, no one really needs a tablet when phablets are in the market that can do so much more on top.

Tablets are also trailing behind iPad’s and will never catch up to the iOS ecosystem in one important aspect. App support. Both Android and Apple stores have vast numbers of apps but Android still pales compared to App optimized support and sheer number in the iOS ecosystem.

The differentiating factor is too little between a big powerful phablet phone one would shell out thousands for over time compared to a 700$ tablet device.

At this time, we see that Android Tablets are actually becoming something else now. Enter Chromebooks. Google has updated Chrome OS to support Android Apps which would allow Chromebooks with touch screen devices to become a much more functional hybrid tablet. We would eventually see 2 in 1 detachable Chromebooks coming out soon.

The Tablet market is dying over time, but this does not mean that everyone thinks they are pointless. Many have found good usage for their beloved tablets purchased recently or years ago. All in all, they have their own place but in the eyes of manufacturers there is simply not enough demand.