Taiwan tech site, DigiTimes, is quoting "sources" saying major hardware manufacturers like Dell, HP, Asus and Acer are preparing to pull out of the tablet market. It says they're throwing in the towel because they can't compete against Apple's iPad, Amazon's Fire and Barnes & Noble's Touch.
DigiTimes quotes "sources in the supply chain".
The iPad has by far and away the largest slice of the market and the Amazon Fire - going on sale in the US at $199 - is expected to be a big seller as well. Amazon - like Barnes & Noble - are subsidising the price of their hardware with expected profits from content sales.
While it seems likely hardware manufacturers may be preparing to scale down production of their current Android tablets, it's thought they could be holding fire for Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system which will be designed to run on tablets as well as laptops and desktops.
(Source: DigiTimes)
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