Tablet Wars Heating Up Ahead Of Holidays

Apple’s iPad dominates the tablet computer scene with few serious challengers and roughly two-thirds of the market all to itself. Rival makers though, aren’t throwing in the towel… adding a number of new options in advance of the holiday season.

“These companies are not giving up in terms of trying to offer something different than what Apple offers,” CNET.com Editor Brian Cooley said.

Amazon for example, used to have just one Kindle Fire – a 7-inch tablet selling for about $200. Now the company has announced a whole line of devices with models offering a range of features and prices. The goal? Attract new customers who don’t want to pay a premium for a high-end Apple product with a high-end price tag.

“There are some folks out there who want to get something else and [these other tablet models are] where these folks are finding some relief,” Cooley explained.

The new Kindles, Google’s Nexus 7 and Microsoft’s Surface are all poised to make a splash as holiday consumer spending heads up and the question now for Apple is… Will the long-time industry leader join the pack? Offering an iPad mini to attract customers in different segments of a growing market?

“Apple has always played in the high end of the market,” Cooley said, “But they’re missing part of the audience now that we’ve begun to saturate everyone with smartphones and tablets.”

Cooley said if Apple does make a move to go smaller this season, an announcement will likely come later this fall. Apple already has a news event scheduled for Wednesday that is expected to focus on the new iPhone exclusively.