non-Apple tablets finding footholds in Europe, slowly

We can see that the tablet market is really taking over very fast and even research firm Context believes the same and also reckons that an increasing number of consumers are looking beyond Apple. Many other products other than that of the Apple’s like the Asus Eee Transformer and Acer Iconia Tab are also starting to make their way through the market as it came forward to the researchers while conducting the research in partnership with CCS Insight.

The October 2011 report showed that the improved availability of the iPad 2 also led them to maintain the spot of largest tablet supplier in Europe. Maintaining the growth trajectory since April 2011 the tablet sales were up subsequently by 20 percent in September 2011.

Although the sales of the tablets from Acer and Asus remain constant but there was a slight fall as the market grew. This also points out that although the sales of the non-Apple tablets are in demand but the opportunities were limited at current prices according to the researchers.

However the 7inch tablets accounted only 2 percent of the devices sold this August although it is expected to grow its market share with the launch of Amazon’s Kindle Fire.  According to Gavin Byrne, principle analyst at CSS Insight, Amazon’s Kindle Fire has the ability to shake up the tablet market because of the factors like price. As it is combined with the online marketing giant Amazon and will attract a lot new audiences to the tablet market. He also suspects that Amazon’s strong media offerings may even threaten Apple's dominance in the area.

According to the report it is also for sure that the tablet market is growing more and more popular and the main factor considered by the consumers is the price while buying. According to Salman Choudhary, mobile analyst at Context, the clear price points and propositions are not yet established and it seems that consumers play safe and buy on the strength of the Apple brand. But he also added that they are expecting factors like operating system, applications and inter working with existing devices to become part of the decision making process.

The launches of the Second Generation tablets like those from Samsung and Asus during this fourth quarter are believed to provide a strong challenge to Apple’s hold on the tablet market. These devices have a better hardware configuration as well as will be powered by Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

So we can really say that the competition is still on even among the non-Apple tablets. The fourth quarter is also believed to show some ups and downs in the tablet market. The Christmas shopping will also lead to the addition of competition among the manufacturers. 

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