Generation after generation of audio players were declared iPod-killers, either by their makers or by the press. And yet the iPod emerged without a scratch. Now, manufacturers are pouring resources into iPad challengers. I suspect, though, that when the dust settles on the tablet market, iPad alternatives like the may end up like the .
Many people disagree with that analysis. When they speculate on the future of the iPad, they don't look at the iPod experience, but at what happened in personal computers. Apple had a great, user-friendly OS, but it was only available on Apple's hardware. Eventually Macs were swamped by the greater hardware options available with Windows. That's the paradigm that seems to be playing out in smartphones, in which the pioneering iPhone is being eclipsed in market share by the sheer number of phones that run Android.
It's easy to conclude that the same will happen in tablets -- as more and more companies produce Android tablets, that Android Army will eventually overrun the iPad's current dominant position.
I don't think so. Why? There are three main reasons: