Market Playground

By Amy Gilroy

Forrester boldly asserts that the expected rash of new tablets won’t really challenge Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad. The BlackBerry (Research in Motion, NASDAQ:RIMM) PlayBook expected soon, the HP TouchPad, and even new Honeycomb (Google, NASDAQ:GOOG) tablets from Motorola (NYSE:MMI) and others are too expensive to threaten the iPad and they lack an elegant App Store.

Apple will keep at least 80 percent of the U.S. tablet market in 2011. Just look at what happens at retail. “Compare the experience of walking into an Apple Store, where the iPad is front and center, to walking into a Verizon (NYSE:VZ) store where the Samsung (SSNHY, 005930.SE) Galaxy Tab is collecting dust at the back of the store and the sales reps don’t quite know what to make of it. Or walking into a Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) store, whose shelves will soon be lined with similar-looking tablets with similar functionality,” said a blog by Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps.

Also, the carrier subsidies that Motorola, Samsung, Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) and others rely on to lower the tablet price won’t work. Consumers are tired of being locked in to one carrier. “Forrester’s data shows that consumers want flexibility with their mobile broadband contracts on tablets.” Read More