Huawei tablets pared-down in size compared to Apple's new iPad Pro
2015/09/10 23:03:27
Photo courtesy of Huawei.
Taipei, Sept. 10 (CNA) China's Huawei Technologies Co. (華為), the world's fourth-largest tablet maker, is not planning to launch bigger tablets such as Apple Inc.'s new iPad Pro that comes with a 12.9-inch screen.
Instead, the Chinese telecom equipment maker will focus on 10-inch tablets with improved screen quality and smaller models of 7 to 8 inches with better portability, said Vincent Hsu (許崇德), sales vice president of device business at Xunwei Technologies Co. (訊崴技術), Huawei's exclusive sales agent in Taiwan.
"Seven and eight inches are already mainstream models based on data from market research firms, and there are still many people buying 10-inch models," Hsu told a press conference Thursday to launch Huawei's 8-inch MediaPad M2 tablet in Taiwan.
Huawei is currently ranked as Taiwan's fifth-largest tablet vendor, helped mainly by sales of the previous version of the M2, the M1, which has sold more than 50,000 units in the country since its local launch in June 2014, according to Hsu.
He said Huawei plans to unveil a 10-inch tablet later this year featuring full support for Taiwan's 4G spectrum frequencies, as part of the company's target to boost its tablet sales in Taiwan from around 70,000 units last year to between 80,000 and 100,000 units this year.
Hsu forecast that the overall tablet market in Taiwan will decline from between 1.2 million and 1.3 million units in 2014 to just over 1 million units in 2015, citing longer upgrade cycles and increased competition from other categories such as larger-screen smartphones.
According to research firm International Data Corp. (IDC), the worldwide tablet market declined 7 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2015, marked by little hardware innovation and limited vendor portfolio updates.
Huawei accounted for 3.7 percent of the global tablet market, ranking it fourth behind Apple's 24.5 percent, Samsung Electronics Co.'s 17.0 percent and Lenovo Group Ltd.'s 5.7 percent, IDC said.
While global iPad shipments dropped 17.9 percent year-on-year in the April-June quarter, Apple debuted its 12.9-inch iPad Pro on Wednesday which the company said had performance similar to a desktop computer, with the addition of a stylus called Apple Pencil and a detachable keyboard as well as business-friendly apps.
Some analysts said the iPad Pro, which starts at US$799, could lead to a refresh cycle for tablets, while others said the higher pricing for the larger iPad would make it less competitive against Microsoft Corp.'s Surface Pro series.
(By Jeffrey Wu)
