Is Microsoft the dark horse of the tablet race?
Network provider Three has predicted that Microsoft could surprise many and ‘change the tablet game’ currently dominated by iOS and Android.
Although the software giant has struggled to gain much traction with the original Surface Pro and Surface Pro 2 tablets, Three has suggested that the manufacturer could surprise many and shake up the slate market.
“The only guys capable of being a bit out of the blue is if Microsoft really do change the tablet game somehow with some other type of Surface or a connected Surface that might gain traction,” Brendan Arndt, Three’s Product Portfolio Manager said speaking with TrustedReviews.
Adding a caveat to his predications, Arndt stated: “They are going to need to invest a lot in it to change people’s hearts and minds.”
While Microsoft might be considered an unlikely champion to the tablet market crown, the Three manager has suggested that although Android had been predicted to dominate in 2013, Google’s OS continues to struggle in the tablet space.
“There have been a couple of wins on the Android side, but not as many as we thought there would be,” Arndt told us.
“If you look at the market where the predictions were for last year, it was big, big sales. It didn’t quite hit where IDC wanted it to be.”
Despite reports earlier this week revealing the Android OS now holds a larger share of the tablet market than Apple’s iOS offerings, Arndt believes that the iPad line will continue to be the highest selling range for some time yet.
“I think Apple will hold the dominance for quite a while,” he said.
“You’ve got Apple and one strong Android at the top, Samsung in the middle at the moment and then down below you’ve got Wi-Fi tabs.”
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