Microsoft, Intel hope to eat into Apple’s tablet market share in 2013

Apple has enjoyed a healthy market share when it comes to tablets. They’ve dominated pretty much from the beginning with their iPad. Google’s Android-based tablets have dented the market share but they haven’t been successful at snatching the majority from Apple. Microsoft and Intel however, are hoping they can do it. There’s a lot happening between Intel and Microsoft and there’s a whole bunch of tablets being launched by the end of the year. Intel hopes to launch its Atom-powered Medfield platform in the market, in time for Microsoft’s Windows 8 OS launch sometime in October this year. Microsoft and Intel are both trying to gain lost ground in the tablet space. ARM-based processor manufacturers by companies such as Qualcomm, Samsung and NVIDIA have dominated the market, leaving Intel completely lost. The same has been the case with the OS market, where Microsoft hasn’t had a competing product to take on Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS platforms.

Intel's Medfield and Microsoft's Windows 8 to take on the Apple iPad

Digitimes has reported that Microsoft and Intel hope to take Apple’s market share down to under 50 percent by sometime in the middle of 2013. The big launches however, begin this year with some 32 different tablets expected to be launched by the end of 2012. Some of the companies launching tablets are HP, Lenovo, Dell, Asus and Toshiba. These are of course, mainstream PC or hardware manufacturers who would be building tablets on the Intel platform. The new line of tablets are expected to be priced anywhere between $300 and $1,000. 

There are also going to be some competitive products priced under the $300 price range, that should really help build the competition against the more expensive iPad tablets. Intel is particularly confident considering Lenovo’s strong performance in the China education and business market. Intel hopes that a  strong performance by Lenovo with the new Intel powered Windows 8 tablets can really help them bring the fight to Apple. With more products expected to launch and many of which will be based on ARM hardware, Microsoft should see their product Windows 8 propelled in a big way.