When Apple unveils its newest gadget on
Tuesday morning, the Silicon Valley company will kick off what could
turn out to be one of the most telling weeks ever seen in the tech
world.
Just days after the Apple unveiling, both its major rivals Google
and Microsoft will also release major new products. Their goal is
simple: to knock Apple off its perch as the world's top technology
company and win what Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt earlier
this month called "the defining fight in the industry today."
The timing is no coincidence. In always-on ever-connected times,
mobile devices top most people's holiday wish list and gadget makers
are hoping that a new crop of shiny new playthings will prove
irresistible to holiday buyers around the world.
Most pundits and analysts expect Apple to announce a new iPad, a
7.8-inch version of the genre-defining tablet, despite the derision
of such a small form factor by Steve Jobs, the company's iconic
founder.
If the reports are correct, the new Apple device will go head to
head with a plethora of other mini tablets from the likes of Google
and Amazon which have undercut the market from Apple's far more
expensive 10-inch iPad.
Since Apple launched the iPad in 2010, sales have exploded at the
expense of traditional PCs and laptops, as millions of users choose
tablets instead of their second computer, and sometimes even as their
primary computing device.
Research firm Display Search predicts that tablet sales will
surpass laptop sales by 2016, but they are already taking a huge
chunk of the market. In the second quarter of this year tablet sales
increased by 75 per cent compared to the previous year. With 24
million units shipped, they comprised 22 per cent of all computers
sold. PC sales in the same period were flat, while they dropped more
than 8 per cent in the third quarter.
That trend is not lost on Microsoft, which built its fortune on
personal computers but has badly missed the big growth markets that
followed, starting with the internet and including more recently
smartphones and tablets.
On Thursday, Microsoft is to officially release its Windows 8
operating system, a package of software that the company calls its
most important launch since Windows 98 almost 15 years ago. CEO Steve
Ballmer is hoping the new OS will finally give the company a foothold
in its missed markets, with the generous help of a massive marketing
campaign estimated to cost 1.8 billion dollars.
But Microsoft is betting on its entire future strategy, and could
risk alienating loyal PC customers with a new interface that's a
radical departure from the company's traditional Windows design.
Instead of the usual start button and keyboard and mouse control
device, Windows 8 relies on a display of tiles to access programs and
is built as much for touchscreen control as the trusty keyboard and
mouse.
Microsoft says it has over 1,000 partner products lined up for the
new software, but the most attention will be focused on its Surface
tablet, which goes on sale, also on Thursday, and has already sold
out in pre-order offers.
For non-tablet users the new software will certainly take some
getting used to and early studies show users clearly confused by the
new design.
"When it comes to the traditional customer base, the office
computer user, they're essentially being thrown under the bus," web
usability experts Jakob Nielsen told Computerworld Monday.
Google won't be sitting idly by as its competitors make key moves
to lure in the holiday shoppers. Next Monday it is expected to
announce major new Android tablets and smartphones in collaboration
with LG and Samsung.
The success of these various initiatives may not decide just
what's under the Christmas tree, but the shape of the tech world for
years to come.
