Research firm Gartner has released its latest forecasts for tablet sales through 2015, which predict that Apple will still hold a 47.1 percent of the market in 2015, on sales of over 135 million iPads. “Seeing the response from both consumers and enterprises to the iPad, many vendors are trying to compete by first delivering on hardware and then trying to leverage the platform ecosystem,” said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner. “Many, however, are making the same mistake that was made in the first response wave to the iPhone, as they are prioritizing hardware features over applications, services and overall user experience. Tablets will be much more dependent on the latter than smartphones have been, and the sooner vendors realize that the better chance they have to compete head-to-head with Apple.”
Apple has won a preliminary round in its ongoing lawsuit against companies manufacturing and/or selling unauthorized accessories for the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Ars Technica reports that U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel has denied a request from four of the companies to have the case dismissed on procedural grounds, ordering the suit to proceed. Apple sued Eforcity Corporation, Accstation, Itrimming, Everydaysource, United Integral, Crazyondigital, and Boxware Corporation last July, claiming that the companies violated as many as 10 of Apple’s patents and additional trademarks by selling unauthorized electronic accessories, including chargers, speakers, and cables. “Many are of inferior quality and reliability, raising significant concerns over compatibility with and damage to Apple’s products,” the company said at the time.
Boy Genius Report, citing an Apple source, has claimed that iOS 4.3.2 is due in “the next week or so,” and will deal with several issues, namely problems experienced by Verizon iPad 2 owners unable to connect to 3G, FaceTime issues, and security fixes. While BGR’s record on predicting Apple iOS update releases is mixed, Apple has confirmed that it is aware of the Verizon iPad 2 troubles, saying, “We are aware that a small number of iPad 2 customers have experienced connectivity issues with the Verizon 3G network and we are investigating it.”
According to In The Plex, a new book about Google penned by technology writer Steven Levy, Apple hid the development of the iPad from then-current Apple Board member and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. As reported by the Daily Mail, the book claims that Apple CEO Steve Jobs was so enraged after seeing iPhone features such as pinch-and-zoom being implemented in Android after a visit to Google’s Mountain View campus that he hid the iPad’s development from Schmidt. Schmidt resigned from Apple’s Board of Directors in August 2009; the iPad was unveiled roughly six months later.
