Published in AI

Apple needs to be innovative again

by on10 April 2014

Analyst spots a hole in the market

Jobs’ Mob which is falling behind the likes of Samsung on the innovation stakes has been urged to investigate making hybrid laptop-tablet device. Equity research analyst Rod Hall said the fruity cargo cult was missing a trick to take control of a $63billion opportunity.

What he is suggesting is that Apple should make a cheap laptop priced between $500 and $1,000 which converts to a tablet. He predicts that Apple will cannibalise its MacBook Air line in 2014 by adding a mouse and keyboard to its tablets. But he thinks that if Apple made an iOS tablet-slash-laptop, it could expect to shift 25 million units and "rapidly grow share" of the market.

"We believe that Apple is currently missing a $63bn market opportunity by only partially playing in the $500-$1,000 laptop market via the iPad," Hall noted in his latest report.

He said that lower priced laptop buyers are not willing to purchase what amounts to an expensive tablet that does not fully replace a laptop. However iPad owners are replacing laptops with the device, we believe that most use the iPad as a supplemental device to either a laptop or desktop PC.

In any case if Apple does decide to develop a product similar to what Hall has in mind, it will no doubt be credited with inventing hybrids and 2-in-1s. The fact Windows and Android hybrids are already on the market won't matter. 

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