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Gadget launches set up three-way Christmas clash
The scene is set for an almighty clash at the vanguard of the technology industry as its three main forces, Apple, Google and Microsoft, ready their smartphones and tablets for the Christmas shopping season.
All three giants have recently or are on the verge of releasing new hardware and software to cater to the booming mobile computing market.
Apple, which dominates the tablet market with the iPad, will face the strongest challenge yet from its competitors.
Microsoft this week introduced its first own brand tablet, Surface, alongside an overhauled new version of the Windows operating system designed to offer easy-to-use apps and online services, similar to those favoured by iPad owners. Google will meanwhile showcase its latest challenge, a new version of its cheaper 7-inch tablet, the Nexus 7, on Monday in New York.
Both Google and Microsoft are also renewing their attacks on the iPhone. Google already leads the smartphone market with its free Android operating system, and Microsoft is due to update its Windows Phone software on Monday, to run on new devices from HTC, Nokia and Samsung.
As if to demonstrate the intensity of the rivalry, on Friday Apple issued a statement acknowledging it had lost a recent High Court case against Samsung, in which it accused the South Korean firm of ripping off the design of the iPad in its tablets, which run Google’s software. The judge ordered it to make the potentially humiliating public concession, but Apple took the opportunity to run down its rival.
“While the UK court did not find Samsung guilty of infringement, other courts have recognized that in the course of creating its Galaxy tablet, Samsung wilfully copied Apple's far more popular iPad,” it said, after quoting the judge’s finding that Samsung’s products were “not as cool” as the iPad.
Apple also made a rare defensive move this week, by unveiling the iPad mini, a smaller, cheaper iPad designed to address the tablet challenge from Google and Microsoft, which has been weak but is now widely believed to be gathering strength. It financial results this week showed iPad sales growth was not as strong as expected, which chief executive Tim Cook blamed on anticipation of the iPad mini.
“You’re seeing a fundamental shift away from PCs to mobile devices,” said Benedict Evans, an analyst at Enders.
“There a going to be a lot of £100 to £250 tablets on the market this year. The supermarkets will be full of them.”
He added that although the challenge from Google and Microsoft is strengthened, especially in tablet hardware, Apple is in a position to maintain its grip on the market this Christmas because of its “ecosystem” of apps, entertainment content and online services.