Microsoft's Windows 7 has a niche tablet presence, according to a new report. That's despite the tablet-optimized Windows 8 reportedly remaining at least a year away.
Whenever tech
analysts probe the burgeoning tablet market, their attention always seems to
focus on Apple's iPad and the growing family of Google Android devices. This is
natural, given the market share those two franchises command. However, according
to new research from Strategy Analytics, Microsoft is slowly creeping into the
tablet rankings with Windows 7, overtaking even Research In Motion's
well-publicized PlayBook.
According to
Strategy Analytics, Apple's iOS occupied some 61.3 percent of the tablet market
in the second quarter, followed by Android with 30.1 percent, Microsoft with
4.6 percent and QNX (which RIM uses for the PlayBook) with 3.3 percent.
Undefined "others" brought up the rear with 0.7 percent.
For Apple,
that marks a substantial decline from the second quarter of 2010, when it
occupied some 94.3 percent of the tablet market, followed by Android with 2.9
percent, and both Microsoft and QNX with a flat 0 percent.
"Microsoft
captured a niche 5 percent global tablet share in Q2 2011, leveraging Windows 7
through partners such as Fujitsu," read a July 21 note accompanying the
research. "RIM and its QNX platform captured 3 percent global tablet share in
Q2 2011. The first-generation PlayBook model experienced a lackluster launch
due to product design issues surrounding native email support."
Windows 7
tablets lack the presence of the iPad or Android tablets on U.S. store shelves,
although Microsoft featured several meant for the Asian market at its booth
during this year's Consumer Electronics Show in January. Microsoft is reserving
its main tablet push for the next version of Windows, widely expected to enter
the market in the latter half of 2012.
Meanwhile, RIM
is pushing its PlayBook as a tablet for both enterprise users and consumers. In
response to rumors that the company planned on discontinuing the WiFi-only version of the device
currently on the market, a RIM spokesperson told eWEEK that the PlayBook has launched in 16 new markets over the
past month, with additional rollouts planned for Southeast Asia, Western Europe
and the Middle East.
That being
said, the PlayBook has proven to be something less than an iPad killer, selling
around 500,000 units in its first quarter of release. Nor, according to an
unnamed RIM employee speaking to the blog Boy Genius Report, did the company
sell those units at full margin.
"RIM's thought
process was that they hoped if they put a product in the carrier's hands that
was less than full margin, it would entice the carriers," that employee is
quoted as saying in a July 13 posting. "RIM isn't making any money on the
PlayBook."
The PlayBook
needs a nearby BlackBerry device to provide native email, something the source
added was off-putting to the carriers. RIM has been pushing through regular
software updates to PlayBook owners, but it remains to be seen whether the
tablet can sustain momentum in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
And despite
all those tablet options, a small number of users-perhaps enterprise workers
with a need to run legacy applications on an ultra-portable device-evidently
want Windows.
Follow Nicholas Kolakowski on Twitter
Nicholas Kolakowski is a staff editor at eWEEK, covering Microsoft and other companies in the enterprise space, as well as evolving technology such as tablet PCs. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, Playboy, WebMD, AARP the Magazine, AutoWeek, Washington City Paper, Trader Monthly, and Private Air. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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