iPads to spark fierce tablet competition in Ghana

Because of its handy nature, many more people are beginning to opt for tablets at the expense of mini laptops. But can all who want it afford? Charles Benoni Okine writes about how a tablet market leader plans to make its products accessible to all.

A special payment package to be announced for the sale of Apple’s iPads in the country is expected to spark a major competition and price war with other tablets brands on the market.

Apart from the payment for the product, there will be added customer services such as training and the provision of the company terms as “realistic warranties on the iPads which will be acquired exclusively through designated and officially recognized resellers in the country.

Presently Samsung, Huawei and rlg are the major competitors for Apple in the country although the brand is facing stiffer competition from other players such as Microsoft, Google, Huawei, Amazon among many others.

But in its quest to ensure that many more are able to access their products to consolidate its position in the market in Ghana, Apple, through its trusted distributor, Core Group Africa, is seriously considering a move to sell iPads to Ghanaian consumers through a special payment package.

According to Mrs Taryn Hyam, Communications Director of Core Group Africa, “we have thought about affordability and although we are going to price the iPads competitively, we will consider are considering a payment package that will make it easy for many more people to own one”.

Core Group Africa, Apple’s official value added distributor for Ghana, Nigeria, Southern Africa and Angola announced that it will formally begin the sale of Apple iPads in the country through authorized resellers in the country from this month.

The resellers who have signed a contract to the company to sell only authorized products will be in the position provide a certain level of customer services to its clients and  offer training as well as after sales support for customers.

Although Mrs Hyam denies the fact that, Apple has started this because of competition in the market, it is obvious that the cheaper tablets on the market which almost performs the same functions as that of iPads, could sweep the market.

Apple products are in a class of their own and it is normally used by people in the upper class, a situation, Mrs Hyam said the company intends to change to make iPads in particular accessible to all.

She said the presence of the company in Ghana is a strategic decision which is expected to inure to the benefit of not only Apple but Ghana as well.

Apple’s competitors

According to the BBC, Apple's new iPad offers improved screen resolution, but it may be squeezed by Windows 8 tablets and Amazon's cheaper Kindle tablet.

When Steve Jobs launched the first iPad in 2010, he did so against a backdrop of uncertainty.

Its arrival came with the typical, predictable fanfare: Apple devotees queued around the block to get their hands on it, while technology blogs and news websites - including this one - prodded excitedly at it.

"Is this the future of computing?" everyone wondered. Back then, nobody really knew the

Aside from the unsurprising addition of the "retina" high-quality display, of particular interest was the addition of 4G LTE technology: a method of receiving data far faster than the iPad's existing 3G capabilities.

At present, most of the iPad's competitors come in the form of Google Android-powered devices, mainly from Samsung and Motorola.

The low-end is owned by Amazon and the enterprise market will soon be owned by Microsoft with Windows 8”

It is no coincidence, some would say, that this show of bravado comes at a time when Apple and Samsung remain locked in ongoing patent legal battles.

Even so, experts are keeping a close eye on the Galaxy Note, which is sized somewhere between a tablet and a smartphone.

The firm has already shipped more than two million units. While not all of those will equate to sales, the figure is considerably better than some doubters predicted. The South Korean firm is targeting 10 million shipments by the end of the year.

But turning back to tablets, one company that may pose more of a challenge is Apple's long-time rival Microsoft.

The firm enjoyed a high-profile and well-received launch for the preview of its Windows 8 operating system last week. The system will offer users the same functionality on their PC and tablets.

Samsung competes with Apple while remaining one of its key suppliers. Meanwhile, analysts believe that Microsoft is going to be a more serious contender than Android, simply because it is not clear what Google is up to. 

However, while at these, it may be too early to write Android's prospects off.

The operating system already accounts for nearly 50 per cent of the US smartphone market, according to a recent study by Comscore.

Time magazine and Wired have reported rumours that a Google-branded seven inch tablet may launch later this year running the new Ice Cream Sandwich version of the software and undercutting the iPad in price, offering the firm a fresh opportunity to appeal to owners of phones using its system.

Amazon's Kindle Fire appears to have proved that there is an appetite for a budget-priced tablet.

The firm has not released detailed sales figures, but analysts at iSuppli have estimated that it shipped 3.9 million devices in the US over the last quarter of 2011, accounting for a 14.3 per cent share of the market. If accurate, that would make it the sector's second biggest player behind Apple.

Whether it will prove vulnerable to the discounted iPad 2, which remains on sale, remains to be seen.

While the competition is on, there is also a major Blackberry's struggle. The most exposed company may prove to be Canada's Research in Motion (RIM).

The firm recently released version 2.0 of its Blackberry Playbook software, providing fully-functional email, contacts and calendar apps that its tablet previously lacked.

It also offers users the opportunity to run Android software, radically extending the amount of programmes available.

Way Forward

The competition is already fierce among the tablet manufactureres in Europe and elsewhere but in Ghana, it is between Apple’s iPad; Samsung’s Galaxy tablet and rlg’s Fusion tablets.

Therefore, the move by Apple is strategic and it is likely to inure to their benefit because it is a more trusted brand many want to associate with.