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Third of Brits would choose tablet over laptop

by Sarah Griffiths on 29 October 2010, 10:17

Tags: Samsung (005935.KS), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

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Tablet top trumps

While half of Brits would consider buying a tablet, over third of them would rather fork out for an iPad or the like over a traditional laptop, according to a new survey.

A study by shopping comparison website, Kelkoo, found one third of the 1,000 people it surveyed this October who said they would consider buying a tablet, are planning on bagging themselves an iPad or Android rival in the next 6 months.

There has been a great deal of speculation about whether the tablet will 'cannibalise' laptop and netbook sales, with Gartner predicting 19.5m tablets will be sold in 2010 and the number is expected to reach 54.8m units in 2011- a growth of 181 percent.

But irrespective of how laptops will fare, there will also be ferocious competition within the tablet market, with Apple's dominance challenged for the first time next week with the launch if Samsung's Galaxy Tab, which crucially includes a camera and Adobe Flash 10.1.

Despite the extra features, Kelkoo believes the iPad will remain the tablet of choice, with over two third of people most interested in Apple's tablet, while 15 percent said they would opt for the Galaxy Tab and 11 percent for RIM's Playbook.

Interestingly, of those that would consider forking out for a Galaxy Tab, one third of them said they'd pick it because of its smaller 7 inch screen, while 29 percent said they would choose it for its phone function and 27 percent because it has Flash unlike its Apple rival. Interestingly a quarter of people surveyed cited a camera and phone function as ‘important elements' that a tablet should tout- neither of which the iPad currently offers.

When it comes to screen size, it does seem to matter as 80 percent of people questioned said they would prefer a 10 inch screen over a 7 inch one, perhaps proving Steve Jobs right when he ranted about smaller offerings at Apple's quarterly results and said: "We think these seven-inch tablets will be dead on arrival. They'll learn the painful lesson that they're too small and have to expand them next year."

He also called them ‘tweeners,' claiming 7 inch tablets are "too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with an iPad."

Here's a handy comparison table from Kelkoo.

 

 

iPad

Galaxy Tab

Memory

 

16GB, 32GB or 64GB flash drive RAM: 256MB

16GB, 32GB or 32GB ext memory RAM:512 MB

Camera

 

N/A

3 MP, Auto-Focus + LED Flash + 1.3MP front camera for Video Telephony

Battery Life

Up to 10 hours of video playback

Up to 7 hours of video playback

Phone

N/A

Yes

Flash player

N/A

Yes

Operating System

iApple's iOS 4

Google's Android 2.2